River Deep, Ocean Wide
by Aria6
Summary: Sequel to Politics and Reploids. In the Megaman Zero timeline, Zero is dying and needs parts that cannot be found anywhere in Neo Arcadia... but the Guardians have them, so where did they come from? The search begins. Read and Review!
1. Chapter 1

It is a strange fact that the greatest of warriors rarely die in battle. Other warriors can be fought against, and if they succeed long enough, what inevitably brings them down is the enemies that cannot be defeated so.

Alexander the Great is said to have died of poisoned wine, but some modern scholars suspect it was appendicitis… potentially lethal in that ancient time. Attila the Hun is rumored to have died of a nosebleed, although ER doctors suspect he actually had a throat hemorrhage from excessive, chronic drinking… actually the most common cause of death for chronic drinkers, followed closely by liver disease. Genghis Khan is reputed to have died of old age, or perhaps falling from his horse.

So perhaps it was not surprising that the oldest Reploid of all should be having some problems. Although he was a copy of the original, some of his parts had come from that first body… and some were failing.

"Zero…" Ciel bit her lip, helping the slender Reploid sit up. He was weak, tired, although the weakness was passing… it always did. But that weakness was recurring more frequently with every day.

"Ciel, what's wrong with me?" Zero said quietly, looking at his human friend… and more than friend. Ciel stared back, and suddenly her eyes filled with tears. "It's that bad?"

"Yes." She took a deep breath, calming herself, aware of the resistance soldiers watching. They were listening, with a petrified silence. Zero was utterly vital to the resistance, so Ciel's distress was terrifying. "Zero, your fusion generator is failing. At most, it will last another six months."

"Why?" He asked softly, curiously. He was taking the news quite calmly… it wasn't the first time he'd faced death, and he was fairly confident Ciel could help him in any case.

"It's just very old. Some of the parts are wearing out… the best thing to do would be to make a new one, connect you to life support and replace it. But we can't." Ciel concluded, and Zero frowned.

"Why not?" He didn't see why Ciel couldn't do it.

"Because your generator is so small, so efficient, so much better than anything Neo Arcadia can make. Certainly much better than anything I can make here," Ciel gestured, taking in the semi-ruined Rebellion base. Zero nodded, conceding the point. "All the Reploids made by Neo Arcadia use far more basic generators, and most are powered by crystals, not fusion. They wouldn't swap in with your components at all… only the Guardians use generators that would be compatible with yours."

"Well, where did they get their generators?" Zero asked reasonably.

"Well, they…" Ciel trailed off, and blinked, puzzled. "You know, Zero, um… I have no idea where they got their generators. I created Copy X, and his parts were just… given to me… I never asked where they came from."

"Were they new?" One of the Rebellion soldiers asked, tilting his head.

"Yes, brand new." Ciel replied, then fell silent for a moment, thinking. "Looking back on it, it's very odd."

"Maybe they came from the Devil Lands across the sea." One of the Rebellion soldiers joked, but Ciel turned to stare at him, and he faltered. "Um… maybe?"

"Could they really?" Another muttered with more than a little trepidation.

There were stories about the place across the sea. The kindest said that the lands there had fallen into pure anarchy after the Cyber Elf wars. But the wilder tales said that great high tech Mecca's still existed there, churning out soulless and deadly creatures without regard for the rest of the world. Barbaric humans and even worse Reploids were said to live there, a constant danger to the safety of Neo Arcadia.

Of course, those stories had been spread by Neo Arcadia. And it suddenly occurred to more than one person that they served the purpose of giving Neo Arcadia a permanent enemy… and keeping any of Neo Arcadia's citizens from looking for greener pastures across the sea. Might the grass be much greener and lusher there, for those who dared to find out?

"There's only one way to find out," Zero said decisively, standing up. "Ciel, can you arrange a meeting for me with Harpuia? A peaceful meeting?" Ciel looked startled.

"Zero, are you sure? You could have another attack." If he did, Zero would be a sitting duck. But Zero nodded.

"Harpuia's too honorable to attack me during a truce." He wouldn't have been willing to do this with Fefnir or Leviathan, but Harpuia was a different matter. "And he won't take any pleasure from my problem… I can at least see if he'll help." Zero thought there was a fair chance that he would. Harpuia's sense of honor would be repulsed at the thought of an honorable enemy dying so ignobly. Of course, his duty with Neo Arcadia would be in conflict with that. Zero would have to see which way Harpuia would finally go.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Soon, Ciel came back with a time and place for the meeting.

"Tonight, at five o'clock, at these coordinates." She rattled them off, and Zero nodded, recognizing them. It was a beautiful hill with a view of most of Neo Arcadia. A lovely place to sit and think. "Zero… be careful?"

"Always." He promised, and gave Ciel a quick hug before he teleported away.

"I knew you would be here early." The soft, androgynous voice interrupted Zero's musings. He turned around slightly to see Harpuia walking towards him.

"That was why you picked such a glorious place," he said, gesturing down to the view. "Wasn't it?"

"Perhaps. What do you want, Zero?" Harpuia immediately got down to business. Zero paused for a moment, and then finally spoke.

"I want to know where Neo Arcadia gets the parts for the Guardians." A wave of dizziness slowly rose through Zero, and he grit his teeth, trying to remain completely steady. Harpuia was silent for a moment, then shook his head.

"I can hardly give that information to the Rebellion-"

"This has nothing to do with the Rebellion," Zero said painfully, raising a hand to his chest. There was a deep ache there. "It has to do with me. I need… need…"

"Need what? Zero… Zero!" Harpuia stepped forward, shocked, as his companion on the hill slowly collapsed. Harpuia knelt down beside him, hearing Zero's rasping, pained breathing. "…"

It took several minutes for the attack to pass, but Zero finally pushed himself up. Harpuia offered him a hand, which Zero resisted taking for a moment… then accepted the help.

"What's wrong with you?" Harpuia asked quietly, looking at Zero oddly. Zero rubbed his chest, and coughed. He knew it was only psychological, but it felt tight and painful there.

"My generator is failing. I need a new one, and Ciel says that Neo Arcadia can't make them like mine anymore." Harpuia looked out over the cliff, considering for a long moment. As Zero had thought, he was balancing his duty and his honor, trying to decide where one ended and the other began. Finally, the Guardian spoke.

"I don't know how much I can help. Master X took care of all that… we haven't had any shipments since you destroyed him." Zero didn't comment on that. He didn't want Harpuia to dwell on that… the Guardian might change his mind about giving any information. "But the shipments we did get came from over the Western Ocean. I… spoke to the crew of one of the ships, once. Much of what they were willing to say was very confusing. One spoke of a beautiful city made of white stone, populated only by Reploids, and he said it was his home. But another told me about a wild, frontier town with humans and Reploids living together. I could only assume the crew of the ship came from many places."

"Is there anything else?" Zero asked, watching Harpuia. The Guardian fell silent. "Please, Harpuia." Perhaps it was the please, but Harpuia suddenly raised his head, meeting Zero's eyes.

"Stay here." To Zero's surprise and puzzlement, the Guardian suddenly teleported away. Zero hesitated, then waited patiently. Harpuia wouldn't ambush him during a truce. He tensed, though, when in perhaps fifteen minutes Harpuia teleported back… with Leviathan by his side, carrying a cardboard tube. That was more than a little puzzling. What could it be? "Zero, we will help you with some conditions."

"What are they?" Zero watched Leviathan warily, but she only looked at the tube in her hand with an uneasy frown.

"We will provide a ship, and crew, and Leviathan will go with you. We need to reestablish trade over the sea as much as you need your generator." Harpuia grimaced slightly. "Our lack of fusion generators is why Phantom and many other high level Reploids have not been replaced." Zero nodded thoughtfully. That would make the Rebellions task harder, if they had to fight Neo Arcadia again… but that was fair, since Zero's survival would do the same thing to Neo Arcadia.

"I mean no offense," Zero said. "But if the crew of the ship is all Neo Arcadian, how can I trust them?" They would be well out of Harpuia's oversight, and there might be more than a little temptation to arrange an accident.

"My word of honor," Harpuia said briskly. "And you can take a party of ten." That would give Zero some firepower behind him, although he would still be outnumbered.

"Besides," Leviathan added. "I'm the Guardian of water, and Neo Arcadia has fishermen. Does your Rebellion have anyone who knows one end of the ship from the other?"

"A point," Zero had to admit. If he was forced to make up the crew out of only Rebellion soldiers, the ship would probably sink before they made it halfway across the ocean. "But none of you have gone across the ocean before, have you?"

"No, but I'm certain it will work out fine." Leviathan said briskly, covering her own concern. X hadn't encouraged anyone to make that trip, so they would be using ships that were more costal in nature. Harpuia didn't understand the risks, but Leviathan knew the ocean as well as any of them and was well aware of the hundreds of things that could go wrong. "Besides, you have to go, don't you?" She raised the cardboard. "At least we have a map." Zero blinked, then eyed it respectfully. Maps beyond the local level were very rare. "It's from before the war, so cities are marked and everything."

"Ah, good." Zero allowed himself a warm smile at Leviathan, who blushed faintly. "I'll go gather my ten… where and when should we meet?"

"Port Town, in… mmm, a week?" Harpuia glanced at Leviathan, who looked pensive.

"Better make it two. Getting everything together could be a little messy." That went completely over Zero's and Harpuia's heads, but Leviathan was their expert on sailing, so they accepted it.

"Okay." Zero smiled slightly. "Thank you, Harpuia." He appreciated that they were willing to help, even if there was some self-interest in it. Then he teleported away, back to the Rebellion base…

* * *

"Oh, this is totally out of the question! Just shoot me now and put me out of my misery!" Leviathan was waving her staff and glaring at Ciel. Normally, that would have sent the eight Rebellion soldiers around her into an immediate defensive reaction. But right now, the situation was very amusing, and many of them were hiding grins. "The ship will sink if you try to load all that crap on it!"

"I need this crap!" Ciel retorted, crossing her arms. "It's all very important! If Zero's generator shuts down, we'll have to put him on life support so we need the systems."

"Those systems weight a ton," Leviathan said, frustrated. "This is a ship, not a repair bay! And it's a damned costal fishing ship! Are you trying to kill us all?"

"You were loading a lot of things earlier," Zero said, feeling a need to defend Ciel a bit. Leviathan scowled at him.

"Those are trade goods. Do you think we'll get something for nothing?" Leviathan glowered, but this time at empty air. "Our records show shipments, mostly of food and spices… damnation, we can't take a shipment of grain on this thing. Just the spices and our own food is taking up so much space. And then the ten of you! Useless, all of you. We are not taking THAT." She came back to the main point, Ciel's baggage.

"Ciel, is there any way to cut it down by, say, half?" Zero looked at Leviathan. "Would half be acceptable?" Leviathan considered it, and finally nodded grudgingly.

"If we unload some other things, yes." Ciel looked mutinous, but finally started looking over the equipment, grumbling and getting the soldiers to help her weed through it. Leviathan looked at Zero, blushing faintly again. "Thank you." She sighed, and slumped down, taking a seat nearby on the steps leading up to the dock. Zero hesitated, then took a seat beside her.

The unimaginatively named Port Town was really quite pretty. It was mostly inhabited by humans, and a few low level Reploids who enjoyed the sea. The buildings were made of red brick, and there were planters everywhere, filled with spring flowers. Zero sighed faintly. If he could, after all the fighting was done, he would retire to a place like this. It was so tremendously peaceful. He wondered if that time would ever come.

Of course, the peace was relative. Zero winced as he heard the sounds of a squalling fight from one of the houses, then grinned. That only made it more charming, in a strange way. A real paradise would never be completely without conflict. Two children ran out of the house, calling each other names.

"Ugh, brats… I hate kids." Leviathan muttered, wincing at the shrill sounds. Zero shrugged.

"They can be sort of cute." He did empathize with Leviathan's attitude, though. The noise was pretty annoying, and one of those kids knew curses he shouldn't.

"Hrmph, if you say so. Are you likely to need all that stuff?" Leviathan gestured to the pile of equipment Ciel was cutting down. Zero winced.

"I hope not. It will all depend on how much time this takes." The longer it took, the better the chances. Leviathan shrugged.

"Well, crossing the ocean won't take too long if we make it at all. Wretched tub of a ship. But I think we'll be fine." Leviathan glanced over at Zero. "Have you ever been on a ship before?"

"No," Zero admitted. Leviathan grinned devilishly.

"Oh, you're in for a treat." But despite his questions, she wouldn't say anymore…


	2. Chapter 2

"…" Zero looked up at the sails of the ship, tilting his head to one side.

Despite the anachronous nature of it, the ship was what Leviathan called a Clipper, and what Zero just called a sailing ship. This was no fishing ship… it had been built to transport people and goods rapidly up and down the west coast of Neo Arcadia. But it still depended primarily on wind power to move it from place to place, harking back to a much earlier era.

Of course, that wasn't entirely true. Zero glanced towards the aft end of the ship. The ship did have an engine, that could be used to propel it, powered by crystals. It was only for emergency use, however. Neo Arcadia was still suffering energy use restrictions, since the Rebellion had never given them the Ciel system… and wouldn't, until the mess with Wiel was completely settled. So sails were the most efficient way to get around.

Hearing some of the sailors' chatter made Zero very glad that Neo Arcadia had provided the crew. He had no idea what they were talking about. For example, what was a Jib? And what was in irons, and why was that bad? (Although it sounded bad… like something the Guardians would do to him if they ever got the chance.) But he had heard the sailors had been talking about the wind when they'd mentioned it, which made no sense at all, as far as he could see. And the rigging of the sails was a profound mystery to him.

Leviathan seemed right at home, though, assisting the captain of the ship. She hadn't taken over his position… that would have been foolish, even for a Guardian… but she was quickly becoming the equal of the First Mate. Zero only wished he could emulate her, but he knew his limits.

There was a horrible gagging sound, and Zero winced. Ciel had discovered that she had no stomach for sea travel. And so far, it had been a very pleasant trip. Zero wasn't sure what she would do if they hit bad weather. Well, besides throw up.

Fortunately for Ciel's ego, she wasn't alone in her distress. Zero smiled to himself as one of the Rebellion soldiers staggered to the rail to join her. Being a Reploid did not make a person immune to seasickness. In fact, sometimes it was worse. According to Leviathan, if a Reploid wasn't predisposed to adapt quickly, sometimes they never would. Humans generally learned to cope after a while.

Zero found a place on the deck he could comfortably sit, and watch the sailors at work. The whole trip was really very peaceful, and he found he liked it. Although it would have been better if he could stay conscious for all of it. His generator kept frizzing at the worst possible times. At first, he'd tried to learn about the sails, but had given up when he'd nearly fallen out of the crow's nest. Climbing ropes wasn't good for someone who might pass out at any moment.

The rest of the trip passed slowly and uneventfully. They only had to cope with one squall, which had caused several of the Rebellion soldiers to pray for death. Fortunately, the prayers hadn't been answered and the ship had pulled through intact.

"That was the easy half of the trip, you know," Leviathan had said conversationally to him at one point.

"Oh? How so?" Zero asked curiously, and Leviathan had shrugged.

"We're following the trade winds, and the currents favor us. Going back, we'll be fighting against them. That will be the harder part."

"Oh." Zero vaguely understood the concept. Ocean travel was not like land. Travelling with the currents meant that the ocean itself was moving with them, shaving many miles off their transit. But going against the ocean was like walking up a down escalator… you had to walk just to stand still, and run to make your way up. The trip back would indeed be longer and more difficult.

Finally, though…

"Land ho!" The Reploid in the crow's nest called down, and Zero had looked up alertly, then scanned the horizon for the land he had seen. It might be nothing but a small island. They'd already encountered several of them.

This was different, though. If it was an island, it was huge. And…

"Perfect! This is just the right spot," Leviathan was muttering, looking over her map. "The historical records said that the operations were moved from the island to the mainland, and this is the mainland, sort of… Philippine islands…" Zero ignored her in favor of examining the land. He already knew what she was talking about. They had all seen the map, and the land of Hope's Dream. The history records were very vague, but it had mentioned that Hope's Dream had started as an island, but eventually come to encompass a wide part of Asia, all the islands in this area, part of Australia and a few costal areas of Africa. It was an impressive organization, easily as large as Neo Arcadia.

Unfortunately, that ancient organization was probably defunct. None of them had any idea who X had been dealing with, and where, so they had aimed for the oldest part of Hope's Dream… the Philippines.

It soon became uncomfortably clear, though, that the land itself had changed. Specifically, it had broken apart.

"This wasn't supposed to be here." Leviathan looked at her maps uncertainly. There was a massive river, leading into the land… so massive a river that Zero wondered if it more qualified as a channel of the ocean.

"It looks almost like the main island has split into smaller pieces." Zero observed. Leviathan hissed in irritation and Ciel looked solemn.

"It probably has. Terrible weapons were used in the final war… even nuclear ones." Zero and Leviathan exchanged a glance at Ciel's calm statement. Nuclear fallout was harmful to Reploids, but they could usually survive it. But for humans…

"Ciel, do you have a Geiger counter with you?" Zero asked, and Ciel frowned.

"No, but I could rig one up."

"Please do." Leviathan requested, looking at the tropical vegetation distrustfully. "Harpuia will have my head if I poison the crew." Most of them were human. Ciel nodded, and went to take care of that.

The ship slowly followed the coastline, looking for any sign of habitation. It was nearly nightfall before they found a tiny village, on an outcropping near the beach. The little huts seemed designed to be impermanent, probably in reaction to tropical storms. There were canoes and small boats tied up to a rather sturdy looking pier.

The reaction of the inhabitants to their arrival was not exactly welcoming. Poor human fishermen and women, they took one look at the sleek little ship and tried to hide in their huts. It took all the persuasion Ciel had at hand, and Zero and Leviathan standing well back, before one old man finally ventured out of his hut to talk to them.

"What d'ye want?" He was a powerful old man, with deeply seamed, tannedskin and large finger joints. He eyed them with bright black eyes, then looked over the ship, expression hard as stone. "Be ye pirate scum?"

"Pirates?" Ciel blinked. That kind of crime was almost unknown in Neo Arcadia. "No, of course not! We mean you no harm." She tried to reassure the elder, but he met her statement with skepticism.

"Maybe ye mean none, but's sure as death ye could kill us all." He stated calmly.

"These people have no trust in Reploids…" Leviathan mumbled to herself, but the man heard her and eyed her sharply.

"'As nothing to do with ye bein' Reps." He looked them over again, then laughed, a harsh sound like a crow cawing. "Ye sound daft enough to be telling the truth. Where ye be from?"

"Across the ocean." Zero gestured vaguely towards the water, and the man frowned.

"'Cross the wide blue? Then ye've traveled far. We've fish an' food, if ye have money."

"What do you use for money here?" Leviathan asked, and the man looked faintly puzzled for a moment, then nodded.

"Right, ye wouldn't know. We use gold, silver, anything of value. 'Bout the only true money is tokens from New Hope." He pulled out a thin, green wafer. Zero stepped forward, fascinated, and saw it was manufactured out of silicon and had been worked with an intricate holographic design. "Most that travels, they use gold and silver chains. Ye break off a link, where ye wish to pay, and everyone has scales to weight it for ye. Some as is canny wear strings o' precious stones and sells 'em where they has value."

"Fascinating," Ciel said, sounding honestly interested. "Can you tell us where New Hope is?" She had the feeling that would be their ultimate destination. The strangely high tech currency seemed to support that hypothesis. But the man only shrugged.

"That, I dinnae ken. Never been any further than Hell's Mouth, but perhaps that is where ye should go. Ye can find anything in the Mouth, so they say, whether ye wish to or not." The elder looked up at the sky, then shrugged. "The sun be getting low in the sky, an' we have a pier. If ye be wishing, you may be staying the night on land today. We have not food to be giving away, but if ye share yer dry food, we'll make ye a meal to remember."

"We'd be glad to," Leviathan said with a smile. As the man had assumed, they had used mostly dried food to get this far, along with oranges and vitamins. A real meal, well prepared, would be delicious… and their own food could be used to help make it. "Thank you." The man waved that away.

"S'small enough thing, when ye could just be taking what ye need. Get that lot off the ship, and I'll go talk to me kin." Leviathan nodded, and started shouting order to the ship as he walked off.

Soon, all the sailors except a skeleton crew to watch the ship were on the ground, and the villagers were cautiously venturing out of their huts. Zero frowned as he saw the signs of poverty and sickness on them. The children, in particular, seemed to have many birth defects.

"Ciel, do you have that Geiger counter ready? These people are suffering from something." Zero was willing to bet it was either radiation, or possibly exposure to chemicals. Probably radiation… some of the fish and vegetables the natives were bringing out looked a bit peculiar to him. On the other hand, he was no expert in horticulture. Maybe those purple fruits grew here naturally.

"Mmm…" Ciel carefully checked the Geiger counter. "It's pretty faint, but yes… this place is radioactive. I imagine it was much worse a few generations ago, and that damage could persist. The food should be safe enough, for short term anyway."

"What about those purple things?" Zero pointed to the offending fruits. He'd never seen anything quite like them. Ciel looked at them for a long moment.

"…Figs." She finally said decisively. "Yes, those are definitely figs." Zero blinked.

"Figs? You mean those things you put in cookies?"

"Yes, but these are nice fresh ones. And I think they're going to be dessert, too." One woman was hard at work cutting figs into pieces, as several others built up the cooking fires and looked over the provisions the Neo Arcadians had brought out. A fish stew was already in the works. Ciel looked at Zero, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "Fresh figs don't travel well at all, and their grown down in the South-West corner of Neo Arcadia. That's why you've never seen them."

"Ah." That made Zero feel better. He liked being able to identify what he was eating.

Over the next few hours, the villagers gradually relaxed and turned chatty. After a bit of questioning, they found out why they had been so upset to see strangers… pirates didn't bother to take much from villages like theirs, since they had nothing, but pirates would have helped themselves to the food and the women, leaving the village in an even worse state than usual. Traders didn't bother with the costal villages, since they had nothing worth trading besides fish and figs. If the villages needed something, they made the trip to Hell's Mouth and hoped that someone was buying fish.

"But New Hope sends medics once a year," One of the woman said, scooping out a bowl of the dessert for Zero. Ciel had already tried it, and swore it was delicious… the figs had been mixed with sliced sugar cane and some home brewed alcohol, then stewed to tenderness. "Reploids, mostly, very nice people. They gave my daughter some pills that cleared up her cough." Zero nodded, taking the bowl with a small smile.

"That's very nice of them." Ciel said with a brilliant smile, and Zero could guess what she was thinking. The Rebellion didn't really have much to offer in trade goods, but if New Hope was willing to help these poor fishermen, surely they would help him as well.

"That it was." The woman agreed, smiling affectionately down at her daughter, who was playing in the dirt with a ragged little doll. "We so much appreciate them, even if they say it's their bounden duty."

"Would you like something to drink?" Zero almost jumped as someone whispered almost in his ear. He turned to see who had spoken, and blushed lightly… it was a very young girl, lovely in her youth. Her skin was dark, and her hair a long, jet black. She smiled wickedly at him, and Zero was certain she had noticed his blush. "We have some delicious drinks… fruit juice, liquor, water…" Her hand brushed his back, and Zero went from suspicious to certain that she was flirting with him.

"Ah… just water will be fine." Zero managed to control his blushes as she smiled, and slowly walked off, swinging her hips. Several of the Neo Arcadians and not a few of the Rebellion soldiers followed her with their eyes. Zero was relieved to notice that none of the villagers seemed to care.

The next day, they departed with instructions on how to find Hell's Mouth. They also left a tiny bit of their spices with the village, which was greeted with pleasure and gratitude. Several of the villagers came to wave as they left, and Zero noticed some strangely smug looks on a few of the Rebellion Soldiers.

It made him think wistfully of the young girl, and wonder what he might have missed.

* * *

"Gah," Leviathan pinched her nose, disgusted. "I can see why they call it Hell's Mouth."

"There's no sewage treatment at all," Ciel said, rather queasy. The harbor stank. It actually smelled surprisingly good, for no sewage treatment, but it was still appalling.

Hell's Mouth sat at the mouth of a massive river channel. This one was definitely a river, not simply part of the ocean… it was fresh water. And it was probably the main reason this city existed.

The community itself was a huge, brawling, lusty place. The docks were huge, and hundreds of ships were tied up at them. As Zero watched, he saw a bulky Reploid tossing huge wine casks down to another Reploid, each one being noted down by a human with a clipboard. Up and down the docks, ships were being loaded and unloaded industriously.

This city shrieked _Cosmopolitan!_ in a way no Neo Arcadian city did. A beehive of activity, it made the largest city he had ever seen look torpid. But it was the people that truly made Hell's Mouth seem so diverse. In Neo Arcadia, the centuries of intermixing in a small area had resulted in a settling of the human appearance. The typical Neo Arcadian human citizen had light brown skin, brown or sandy-blond hair, and hazel eyes. That was by no means universal… darker skin was fairly common, and so was pale skin… but Zero had never seen such wild divergences before. From where he was standing, he could see people with the Oriental appearance, the deepest black of Africa, and even a man with flaming red hair and sunburned white skin. The commonest appearance was like the villagers they had met, but even so, there appeared to be no common phenotype for the humans here.

The robots were just as variegated. There were examples of Reploids who wouldn't have looked out of place in Neo Arcadia, to strange designs that would have gained more than a few looks. Full animal Reploids had fallen out of use a long time ago, in favor of humanoid forms, but they were obviously still going strong here. A nearby cat Reploid was scratching himself and fishing off the pier. Zero idly wondered how he would eat any fish out of the harbor. Hold his nose?

"Well, are we just going to stand here forever?" Leviathan said practically, and vaulted over the side of the boat, landing neatly on the pier. The wood was probably reinforced with metal, because it didn't even quiver. Zero shrugged, and followed her example.

"Hey, wait!" Ceil called as they crew extended the stairs people usually used to leave the ship. She quickly dashed off, joining them on the dock.

"So… where exactly do we go?" Zero finally asked, as Leviathan and Ciel both hesitated. The girls glanced at each other, and Leviathan finally spoke.

"I really have no idea."


	3. Chapter 3

No idea translated into wandering around and taking in the sights.

Of course, they couldn't all do that. The entire crew and all the Rebellion soldiers except one waited on the ship. Zero and Leviathan didn't really feel the need for any firepower besides themselves. The Rebellion soldier was only along to help out Ciel and keep her out of danger.

The streets were wide, but still packed with people. The only vehicles used seemed to be hovering skateboards of a type Zero had never seen before, and aerial cars that zoomed by overhead on silent jets. They all stopped to look at one of those, one that looked like a sleek sports car. Vehicles of that type were not unknown in Neo Arcadia, but they were always larger, to accommodate the generators that powered them. This was a sleek little bird of a vehicle.

"If that isn't powered with a fusion generator, I'll eat my notebook." Ciel said firmly, and everyone nodded. Nothing else could keep that car in the air and moving so swiftly.

"How expensive it must have been," Zero muttered to himself with a faint scowl. For all the riches and wonders of this strange land, they had already passed many beggars, many human children. Starving children. He was of two minds about that. Neo Arcadia looked after its citizens and didn't permit such things to happen… but perpetrated its own abuses in the name of stability. Here, the people obviously had more freedom but for the lowest of the low, that was only the freedom to starve.

Wasn't there a better way? Zero suspected there wasn't. One way or another, you paid for what you got. The price of utopia was the loss of freedom. The price of freedom was the cruel hand of fate. If he had to vote, though, Zero would always pick freedom.

Still, in so many ways, this was a wonderful place to be. They paused for a moment to listen to a group of buskers, singing and playing for coins on the street. Leviathan tapped a foot in time with the music, grinning in pleasure. Ciel traded a small pin for some food, and soon they all had a kebab in hand, meat and vegetables threaded on a stick then grilled over a small brazier.

They passed from the port district into the city proper, and the traffic became lighter. Zero looked around, curious. The city was mostly made out of the same light woods as the village they had passed through earlier. It was curiously unfinished, but then, this was typhoon country. He imagined the inhabitants were used to having to rebuild, so they didn't put a lot of effort into the original building. Rickety or not, though, the houses looked quite comfortable.

Zero was just finishing his kebab when someone jumped over a balcony right above him. He only had time to look up before he was slammed to the ground in a sound of clashing metal.

"Oh, thank you," A disturbingly familiar voice said in his ear, and the person pulled back enough to grin down into Zero's face. "You broke my fall perfectly."

"Copy X?" Zero gasped out, almost petrified. He'd killed Copy X the first time, and Weil's booby trap had killed him the second time. There was no way at all he could be alive, here! But the blue armor, the bright red eyes… the angel armor… it was all exactly…

But no. Something wasn't quite right. Zero only had a blurred impression of it, events were going so fast, but X's eyes were gleaming in a way Zero had never seen before. It was almost like they were burning with a powerful, vibrant inner light. Compared to these glorious eyes, the Copy X he had killed had been lifeless from the beginning. This person was-

Ducking as a wild shot whizzed over their heads. The Rebellion Soldier knocked Ciel to the ground, covering her with his body, and Leviathan gripped her staff in a state of confusion, staring at the new Copy X and then up at the balcony. Zero managed to tilt his head back enough to get a look at the balcony, and he was just as confused as Leviathan. Two humans, siblings from the looks of them, were struggling over the gun the man had fired. The girl, Zero noticed, was completely nude and definitely a natural blonde…

"_SHAMELESS SLUT!_ Get your clothes on! I will avenge our family honor!" The man roared, and the woman screeched right back.

"_TAKE THE FAMILY HONOR AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR_-" Her description of where exactly the family honor would go was anatomically interesting. Apparently, when she was done, the man would be hiring a proctologist to find his head.

"Time to scram!" Copy X said brightly, and leaned forward, giving Zero a quick kiss, to his everlasting shock. "See you later, sweety." Then the strange Reploid was pelting away at top speed. Seeing his quarry escaping, the human screamed in rage and shoved his sister away, jumping off the balcony himself. Zero winced, but the human managed to land without incident.

"You'll die! Defiler of the innocent!" He chased after the fleeing X, leaving all of them staring after.

"What in Satan's fiery arsehole was that?" Leviathan asked, but no one could answer.

* * *

"Okay, Ciel. You created the Copy X. So what WAS that we just ran into?" Zero asked her firmly.

They were in a sidewalk café. It catered to anyone in need of a snack and a cool drink, and with a little haggling, they'd sold a few drams of spices for gold link chains. A link snapped off from those chains had paid for their drinks, with some left over to spare. Ciel took a deep drink of her fig wine, then sighed.

"I think it was my first attempt at making an X copy. He… didn't really work out the way I'd expected. I'm still not sure why. Everything seemed to be going well, but one day he just vanished."

"Not exactly," Leviathan said, amused at being able to correct Ciel. "I wasn't there, but I heard the story from Harpuia. Didn't he manage to crack every code in the base, steal a shuttle, and make a break for it to parts unknown?"

"Uh, well, maybe…" Ciel appeared to be sinking into her chair, her face turning a dull brick red. Zero was fascinated.

"I never heard of this. Why didn't anyone mention it?"

"Because it was a huge blotch on our collective history," Leviathan answered promptly. "Total failure for Ciel, Harpuia AND Phantom. Only Harpuia ever had the guts to admit to it, though. The whole security system got a total revamp after that." Ciel covered her face, totally humiliated.

"I went so wrong with him," she said miserably. "Even more wrong than Copy X… I don't know what I did wrong. I thought he was an exact duplicate, even closer than the Copy X I made later." Zero hesitated, remembering those jewel-like red eyes. Eyes that had flamed with life, even in the very brief time Zero had seen them. The eyes of an untamed soul, possibly dangerous and fickle but glorious with sheer power and joy.

"No," Zero said, his own voice sounding far away. "No, you didn't go wrong Ciel. I think you went right. I only saw his eyes for a moment, but there was something in them, something so individual and so strong… Copy X wasn't like that. I haven't met many people like that." Strangely enough, one person he thought of was Elpizo. He had flamed, too, with the strength of his convictions. It had been a joyless flame, not like the energy he had detected in this X copy, but it had been strong too. And Zero's memories vaguely recalled someone else, someone in black armor with a sweet laugh… Zero shook his head, chasing those memories away like cobwebs. They were too fragmentary to be useful, in any case.

"If she made him right, why would he have run away from his duty in Neo Arcadia?" Leviathan sounded skeptical, tilting her head at Zero. Zero smiled faintly.

"From what little I've seen of him, it's hard to say… but can you imagine THAT as the ruler of Neo Arcadia?" That created a brief silence… until Leviathan snickered, and slowly started to laugh.

"God! If he was, Harpuia would have a fit! Everyone would have a fit!" Ciel looked embarrassed, but also started to giggle. It really was impossible to imagine a Reploid who would seduce a woman then jump off a balcony with the brother in hot pursuit, as the ruler of Neo Arcadia.

"We should find him," Zero decided. "Find out what he's doing, what he's up to. If nothing else, he can probably give us directions." They'd discovered, after a few queries, that maps were pretty much unknown in this place. And everyone had a different opinion about where they should go for a fusion generator. It was really quite confusing. Zero didn't really have any high hopes that this prototype Copy X would be any more informative, but it was worth a shot.

"Another thing that could take all day," Leviathan sighed, but Zero shook his head in disagreement.

"Not really. I saw which way he was going." As it turned out, Zero was right. It took a great deal of questioning and some careful backtracking, but X's trail really wasn't that hard to pick up. His angel armor was truly flamboyant, even at the best of times.

But even with the advanced warning the scene on the balcony had given them, they weren't really expecting Copy X to be in a tavern in the port district. Although it WAS getting rather late… late enough for serious drinkers to be out…

"Dear lord," Leviathan poked a few Reploids out of the way, then jumped with a squeal and smacked a hand away from her butt. "HEY!" The Rebellion Soldier prudently stood behind Ciel, defending her buttocks from random groping.

"There he is," Zero said, looking towards the back of the tavern. X was seated in a chair that looked like a bizarre throne. It was light stained wood, carved into scenes of fantastic sea monster, nerieds, tritons, and other myths of the sea. He had a large tankard of something frothing, and was taking the occasional drink from it… between versus of a song. Zero listened to the words, fascinated. He was sure the song was very old, but he had never heard it before.

_Well there is an ancient party at the other end of town  
And he keeps a little grocery store, ah the ancient's name is Brown  
And he has a lovely daughter, such a treat I never saw  
Oh, I only hope someday to be the old man's son-in-law. _

Well, Old Brown sells from off his shelf most anything you please  
He's got jew's harps for the little boys, lollipops and cheese  
His daughter minds the store, and it's a treat just to see her serve  
I'd like to run away with her but I don't have the nerve.

_And it's Old Brown's daughter is a proper sort of girl,  
Old Brown's daughter is as fair as any pearl.  
I wish I were a Lord Mayor, a Marquis or an Earl  
And blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl.  
Blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl. _

Well, poor Old Brown now, has trouble with the gout,  
He grumbles in his little parlour when he can't get out  
Oh, and when I make a purchase, Lord, and she hands me the change  
That girl she makes me pulverised, I feel so very strange

_And it's Old Brown's daughter is a proper sort of girl,  
Old Brown's daughter is as fair as any pearl.  
I wish I were a Lord Mayor, a Marquis or an Earl  
And blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl.  
Blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl._

_But Miss Brown she smiles so sweetly when I say a tender word  
Ah, but Old Brown says that she must wed a Marquis or a Lord,  
And I don't suppose it's ever one of those things I will be  
But by jingo next election I will run for Trinity._

_And it's Old Brown's daughter is a proper sort of girl,  
Old Brown's daughter is as fair as any pearl.  
I wish I were a Lord Mayor, a Marquis or an Earl  
And blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl.  
Blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl._

Copy X suddenly noticed them, and his bright eyed gaze fixed on Ciel as unerringly as a hawk spotting a mouse. He grinned, joyful and faintly malicious.

"Why, mother! Hello! Forgive me for not rising, but I'm a little unsteady." X drained his mug in one long swallow, and followed it with a tremendous belch. A girl laughed, walking up to his chair and tugging on one of his angel helmet spikes.

"X, you are so totally disgusting." She said fondly, and kissed him on the cheek. Zero looked her over, interested. Her skin was Polynesian dark, and her hair and eyes were pure black. She wasn't particularly attractive, though. No, her face and body were simply pleasant… and X was smiling at her with genuine affection.

"Tell me about it, darling. So, momma dearest, how can your humble creation serve you?" X tried to bow, and almost fell over, an interesting accomplishment in a chair. Ciel was looking mortified by the whole display.

"X… what's happened to you?" She whispered softly, appalled. It wasn't just the drunkenness, womanizing and general slovenliness that was horrifying her. Her prototype X copy was dressed like a barbarian. Now that they had time to examine him more closely, they could see he was wearing a red velvet vest embroidered heavily with gold thread. Gold chains were dangling from the shoulders, a vast display of portable wealth in this culture. As they watched, he broke off another link and ordered more drinks. Silver chains formed a belt around his waist, twining with strings of lapis and gold beads. Zero cautiously estimated that X was fairly well off. Some of the items might not be real, so it was hard to say for sure. X only grinned at Ciel, far too amused to take offense.

"Happened to me? Nothing. I got exactly what I wanted… freedom from you and all your smothering expectations." X shrugged, waving one hand as if to dismiss all of it. "But that was a long time ago. What do you want now, Ciel? If it has to do with me going back to Neo Arcadia, I'll tell you right now that I'd rather stick red hot pins in my eyes. Horrible place."

"Hey!" Leviathan protested. "It's not THAT bad!"

"Compared to what? Hell?" X drank noisily from his tankard, then grinned at them again. "So what's brought you here? Tell, tell."

Seeing no reason not to, Zero went over all their reasons for coming. X listened intently, his eyes gleaming with something Zero couldn't quite name. Passion? Interest? Or something he had never seen before?

When Zero was done, X grinned.

"A quest, then! Wonderful. It's been a long time since I did a real quest. Would you perchance like a guide?"

"We'd love one," Zero said quickly, cutting off the two girls. He thought they desperately needed a guide, without any maps available, and he wanted to get to know this Copy X better. There was something so different about him, so very, very unusual.

Keeping him around as a guide would definitely be one way to find out exactly what was so different about him…


	4. Chapter 4

"Fusion generator, fusion generator, squizzle fenator." X sorted through a pile of papers, frowning. "Ema, do you know where the maps are?" He tossed away some junk, annoyed, and his female companion picked it up and neatly piled it onto a table.

The interior of their ship was dirty, dusty and messier than any small, enclosed space had a right to be. A small electrical lamp sat on the table, illuminating the room with flickering light. This was a combination kitchen, dining room and paper storage room. Every document of value to the running of the ship could be found here, if you looked hard enough.

"X, you're a disorganized feeb," she said kindly. "Let me look." X moved out of the way with a grin, and she knelt down, her soft linen skirts pooling around her in a splash of a half dozen colors. "Ahh… which map? There are three."

"All of them. What was that ship they wanted us to meet them at again? The Silly Putty?"

"The Wandering Gypsy." Ema corrected, pulling out one of the maps.

"Asinine name. Gypsies always wander, it's why they're gypsies, even I know that. Only thing worse would be the Soaring Seagull or some such nonsense." X started reaching for a metal flask of alcohol, and his companion reached over without looking, taking it away and placing it in her skirts. X sighed gustily, but didn't protest.

"Our ship name is much better." She agreed with a nod, and frowned as she found another map. "A bit of mold on this one."

"Pity. I'll have to redraw it again." The maps, if you could call them that, were hand drawn by Copy X. More in the nature of memory aides than serious navigational tools, they nonetheless covered a vast amount of area. Often incompletely, but X wasn't noted for good record keeping. Anyone else trying to use the maps would have been hopelessly lost, but for Copy X and Ema, they were invaluable. "Where's spiky boy?"

"He's fishing off the dock." Ema finally found the third map, and stood, knocking over the alcohol flask. X pretended to ignore it, but one foot started inching a bit closer. "He was awfully surprised when I told him we had met Zero and a bunch of people from Neo Arcadia."

"Ohh, spiky boy is keeping seee-crets." X said in a sing-song, then grinned. "But that's okay, we don't tell him everything either." Ema and X exchanged smiles. They both had suspicions that their friend was much older than he looked.

They didn't much care, though. Their river boat only had the three of them as crew, but it was a fine little boat. They had acquired a fusion generator as loot from a mission, and ran a wonderful propeller setup. It was slow but steady, and the ship had puffed its way across the ocean on more than one occasion. Once, they had gone straight through a typhoon. That terrifying experience had almost killed them all, but none of them had been at all daunted. Frightening or not, they loved the sea, and that was the only thing that was really important to them.

There was a loud clatter, and the last member of the crew walked down the stairs into the bowels of the ship. A tiny Met drone followed close on his heels, making X smile. Investing in the drones had been one of their best decisions. They were what made it possible for three people to run this boat so easily.

"Hey, X," A young looking male Reploid collapsed on to a chair, grinning. He was wearing black armor, old style but actually very current, with bright red hair and crossed scars on his face. "Finally found the maps?"

"Bah. Does everyone know me better than I do?" X bantered back. "Why don't you make yourself useful and cook some breakfast, Axl?"

"Oh god, no!" Ema exclaimed, horrified. "Not that! Anything but that! Don't punish me so!" X's foot managed to snag the alcohol, and he slowly started to reel it in… until Ema casually stepped on his foot. "I'll take care of breakfast. Axl, can you put the rum away?" She kicked it out from under X's foot, and Axl took it with a grin.

"Sorry X, you're all dried out." X sighed, slumping in his chair with a mock woeful expression.

"It's all so cruel…" Axl shook his head with a smile as he put the metal flask away. X didn't really want to drink. This was a morning ritual, a friendly game X and Ema always played. Ema seemed to have a psychic sense of where the bottle was at, and X delighted in trying to outwit it. In the evening, of course, it would be a different matter, but Ema didn't object to drinking as long as it happened late in the day. She could put away more than a bit herself.

Axl stared at the metal flask, at his reflection in it, thinking. He hadn't expected to ever meet Zero again. Would Zero remember him? Would Zero even look the same? Axl hadn't seen him in so long, the memory was frayed and worn. Would he recognize Zero, if he saw him again?

_I could show them the way to New __New__ Hope__ now,_ he thought, wiping away some dirt from the cupboard. _We don't have to do this at all… but then I would have to explain how I know the way._ He didn't like that thought. People from the more technologically advanced areas usually kept that fact to themselves, and for good reason. Too many people seemed to think they had miracles in their back pocket, when in fact there were never any miracles. But in places where people lived an inch from starvation, was it any wonder they looked on the lands that still held the glories of the past with awe and desire?

Axl wasn't worried about X and Ema putting that on him, though. They had been adventuring together since the day Axl had pulled X out of the sea. By sheer chance, he'd seen X's shuttle go down and arrived in time to rescue him. Axl had taken X to Larkspur, an irradiated but still functional city, where Dr. Light and the Reploids living there had repaired him. Axl had been shocked by X's personality, but delighted, and they had decided to go see the world together. No, X knew quite well that Axl had no miracles stuffed up his sleeves.

But Copy X couldn't keep his mouth shut if you duct taped it, sealed it with wax, then welded it. Well, maybe that was being a little unfair. X could be incredibly sneaky when he put his mind to it, and part of that was keeping mum when silence was more than just golden. Still…

_I'll keep it to myself for now,_ Axl finally decided. _If Zero's generator gets worse too fast, I'll tell them then._ Comforted by that thought, Axl closed the cupboard. Soon, they would be trawling through the rivers and puffing through the sea. Axl hadn't loved the waves when he had first helped X put together this ship. But now, he was as addicted as any of them. They had been in harbor for a week, and it would be good to be sailing again.

Soon, the three of them were in the cabin of the _Wandering Gypsy_. Compared to their ship, it was well-lit, extremely clean and extremely organized. X immediately started to clutter it up by collapsing onto a chair, his chains tinkling. "Hello again! Oh, I suppose I should introduce everyone… this is Ema, and this is Axl." Ciel and Leviathan nodded and murmured polite words. Ema sat more sedately in the one remaining chair, while Axl stayed standing, giving them a small wave.

Zero stared at the black armored Reploid, feeling vaguely unsettled. A memory was teasing his mind, something about this boy… it wasn't the first time he'd felt this way. Copy X had inspired much the same feeling, the first time he'd seen him. But this was strong enough to give him a powerful feeling of déjà vu. The Reploid looked extremely young, but his armor was a very old style… and if Zero's memories held him, he couldn't be young. Axl grinned at Zero, and waved as his name was mentioned.

Meanwhile, Axl was entertaining some thoughts that would probably have made Zero blush and try to sink under the desk. _Wow, who came UP with that look? It's awful! He looks like… like… I don't know what he looks like, but it's not Zero. Ugghh, if I ever find who came up with that I'll have to give them a huge shake._ Axl managed not to say anything, though, as X unrolled his maps on the desk.

"Okay, I'd say the first place we should go is Larkspur. It's waaaaay on the other end of the islands, though." Leviathan, Zero and Ciel crowded around the desk, fascinated by the cobweb-drawing maps. "Oh, by the way, what are you paying me?"

"You haven't _asked_?" Axl said, appalled, and X looked thoughtful.

"To tell you the truth, I sort of volunteered… but you'll have to at least make up expenses." X looked at Ciel. "And maybe a bit for my time." Ciel nodded.

"That's fair, but we only have trade goods… spices, mostly. Leviathan?" Ciel glanced at the Guardian… she was the one in charge of the trade goods, since Neo Arcadia had provided them. She nodded.

"We can work it out." She was more interested in the map. Reaching out to touch it, she examined it carefully. "Oh… here we are." Hell's Mouth was marked in red, along with several other locations… including Larkspur. This particular map was a fairly extensive one, of this area of islands and jungle terrain. She frowned, looking at the blue lines that seemed to indicate rivers on the homemade map. The rivers got close to Larkspur, but never quite reached it… and the closest other city seemed to be quite far away. "It's inland."

"Alas, it is," X sighed. "We'll have to dock the ship at Manna, I'll have to make my usual threats and we should probably leave some guards… not that it'll be a problem after what happened last time."

"I daresay not. How many people did you kill, exactly?" Ema said with a smile, and X shrugged.

"I lost count." Noticing the horrified looks of their hosts, X grinned. "It's not what you're thinking. The villagers were in cahoots with some pirates, and they took our ship while we were in Larkspur. We hunted them all down and killed 'em… then executed the village elders who knew about it. Not an easy couple months, but great fun!" He sniffed slightly. "Although the pirates made a mess of the boat. It needed fumigating."

"And de-lousing." Axl put in with a grin. "So X, what path should we take?" X stood up and leaned over the map, peering at it intently.

"It'd be fun to take a new route…" He mused, then shook his head. "No, not for this one." Pulling out a little plastic box of green pins, he carefully put them into the map, outlining a rather circuitous route. Leviathan frowned, and touched a much larger part of the river. It looked far straighter and easier.

"Why not go down there?" She asked, tilting her head. X glanced at what she was pointing to, and shook his head.

"See the black triangles between the blue lines? Rapids. The ship would never make it, we'd have to portage the whole way, and that's a pain in the arse." X spoke from painful experience, and Axl nodded emphatically.

"Oh." Leviathan looked over the map, severely puzzled. The black triangles weren't the only ambiguous symbol on the map. There were red circles, yellow triangles, green stars… "Why don't you make a key for those symbols?"

"That would make it too easy for someone to steal it and use it," X said absently. "No merchant makes their maps easy to read." Ciel blinked at that concept. Maps were so common in Neo Arcadia, no one would bother with the kind of subterfuge X was describing, but in a place where there were no standard maps it made sense. Having experience with an area could make all the difference between success and failure. "There. That route should do us. Now, the most important question! Which ship will we use?"

"What?" Leviathan blinked, startled. "We can't leave our ship here!" X looked pensive, reaching up to rub the jewel in his helmet.

"You really ought to. It would just be a hindrance on the rivers we plan to go down. It's a lovely coastal ship, suited for deep rivers, but these aren't deep rivers. It might run aground." Leviathan and Copy X entered a spirited debate about the merits of their respective vessels. Ciel and Zero listened uncomprehendingly, while Axl and Ema just enjoyed the dispute. Finally, it ended in X's favor. The deciding factor was when he mentioned the lovely, high tech motor on his ship that also powered some defensive armaments. The ship Leviathan had brought didn't have anything like that.

"So what should we do with this ship?" Zero asked, and X shrugged.

"Just leave it here. The harbor fees are nominal and if you leave your crew, it'll be safe enough. We can trade some of those spices for money for you, for a small commission, and leave them enough to manage for a couple weeks or so. That's how long it will take us to get to Larkspur and back." X grinned. "They'll be okay, as long as they stay out of the brothels. Some of the whores roll the johns." That made all three of them blush, to the amusement of their guests. "Anyway, let's get to work on those spices of yours, and you can meet us at our ship tomorrow bright and early. It's the _Bad Penny_ on dock five."

"We'll meet you there." Zero promised, giving Axl one last, puzzled glance. The other Reploid grinned at him, which only made his sense of deja vu worse.

After they were gone, Zero turned to Ciel, Leviathan trying very hard to listen in. "That one with the orange hair, Axl… he seems so familiar to me. I feel like I know him from before." Ciel looked slightly concerned.

"Well… he might be a survivor of the ancient times. Some Reploids have made it." It was rare, but a few had pulled through the cataclysm and all the subsequent years. Zero looked troubled, but nodded.

"Yes, but I've never felt a reaction this strong before…" Zero sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Oh well." Leviathan blushed lightly, watching his hair sliding down over his back, then jerked her eyes away.

Now wasn't a good time for that. There probably would never be a good time, but now certainly wasn't it.

* * *

"Cast off! Cast off!" The _Bad Penny_ was getting underway in a tearing hurry. Understandably, since a lynch mob was forming on the dock.

"Gods, you just went out to sell spices! What the hell happened?" Ema was working even as she talked, using a remote control to fire up the ships engines… and defenses. Not a moment too soon as a spray of plasma hit the invisible force field the ship was spinning up. Zero and X were both looking disheveled, and Leviathan was actually injured, favoring her right leg.

"Nevermind that!" X slashed the ropes holding them to the dock, dumping several people into the water who had been trying to scale them. He casually punched a Reploid who had managed to grip the rail in the face. The Reploid fell into the water with a scream, which only inspired the crowd on the dock to even more bloodthirsty threats. Ciel was looking after Leviathan, who had sat down on the deck, wincing in pain. A hole had been punched almost entirely through her leg, and though her auto-repair systems would eventually take care of it, Ciel could take away the pain and hurry the process a great deal.

The ship finally pulled away, leaving the screaming pack behind them, and none of the other ships tied up at the docks seemed inclined to follow them. Zero noted with relief that no one was bothering the _Wandering Gypsy._ Despite their pit stop to drop off the gold they would need, it seemed no one had connected them to the other ship.

"Now what HAPPENED?" Ema repeated, and Ciel looked up from her work with a scowl.

"Yes, what happened?" X sighed, and leaned against the rail, which creaked under his weight but held up easily.

"Would you believe the spice trade is totally under the control of a criminal syndicate run by none other than Raphael Kesseny?" Axl heard, from where he was tapping instructions in to the ships steering mechanisms, and looked over with a groan.

"Him! The one you scammed two pounds of gold from?" X tried to look innocent, but the grin trying to break out definitely ruined the attempt.

"Hey, it was a legitimate card game!" He protested, and Ema shook her head.

"Except that the cards were fixed, and he found out a month later. Will we ever be able to go back into Hell's Mouth again?" She asked sourly, and X gave her an urchin grin.

"Oh yes. We ended up killing him and taking all his treasure, that's what the fuss was about." And to the amazement of everyone… Zero and Leviathan most of all… he reached into his vest and pulled out several large bags. Opening one, he spilled a handful of cut jewels into his hand. Sapphires and emeralds glittered like the very essence of the sea from his palm. "You know how these things are. No one will remember in a month. Well, actually, it'll enhance my reputation." X looked a little pensive. "Although I might have to kill his brother too, when we come back."

"Ohhh… let me see those!" Ema snatched the pounch, making X laugh. "Even if we can never go back, this is worth it! What a price they'll fetch in Larkspur! Do you have more?" Axl joined them to look over the loot, and Zero looked down at Leviathan and Ciel, who looked up at him blankly.

"When," Zero wondered aloud. "Did he grab those? He was fighting the whole time, he even called up his Seraphim mode. I saw him." Seraphim, wearing that gaudy vest, had been something to see. Ema looked over with a grin.

"This is X. He could fall into a cesspit and come up with gold." She was rolling a string of pearls through her fingers and beaming brightly.

"This totally messes up getting some more soldiers, though," Leviathan said grumpily. They had been planning to take two more Rebellion soldiers, and three Neo Arcadians with them. Now, all they had was the single Rebellion attendant to Ciel. There hadn't been any time to do more than toss the bag of gold onto the _Wandering Gypsy_ before they'd fled for the _Bad Penny._ Something occurred to Ciel then, and she stood up, stalking over to the three who were examining the loot.

"Since Zero and Leviathan did half the fighting, shouldn't we get half of that?" She said sweetly, and Axl stepped back as X immediately protested.

"Hey, if Zero hadn't passed out when I was trying to intimidate Raphael, it mightn't have happened!"

"But it did, and you made a profit," Ciel pointed out with relentless logic. "It's only fair to share, don't you think?"

"She has a point, X." Axl opined, and X sighed, but conceded defeat with a shrug. He made a rough split of the gemstones, and handed Ciel a pouch.

"Well, let's get this show on the road." The three of them scattered to their accustom places, getting the ship on course for Larkspur.


	5. Chapter 5

"I came into a scolding wife, a few short years ago…" X sang out brightly as the ship slowly went up the river, working diligently against the current. He was standing beside the rail, leaning against it and enjoying the scent of the water and the freshness of the day.

Zero slowly walked up behind him, and paused, watching the prototype Copy X. He was out of his angel armor now, wearing only the casual blue armor Ciel had first made him with. He was moving slowly from side to side as he sang. His voice was wonderful… even if his choice of songs was incredibly archaic and left a little to be desired.

"…and if the Devil'd take her, I'd thank him for his pain… I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again… Eh?" X looked up as Zero tapped him on the shoulder, then smiled. "Oh, hi Zero! Has Ciel settled down yet?" Ciel had almost pitched a fit when she'd found out about the sanitation arrangements, or lack thereof. Ema had graciously offered to show her the exact way for a woman to pee over the rail, but that hadn't gone over too well. Zero blushed lightly as he remembered it.

"She'll be fine. But she's worried about toilet paper." That made X grin.

"I don't think anyplace has toilet paper, not that soft stuff you have, anyway. But we have lots of leaves!" X's wave encompassed the tropical vegetation on the edges of the river banks. Many of the trees had grown out so far, it actually was feasible to grab some leaves from them, especially for Axl and X is his Seraphim form. Although Zero shuddered slightly at the thought of X summoning that up just to get leaves for Ciel, especially because he was sure Copy X would do it. He wouldn't see anything wrong with using the ultimate power in the universe to cut wood, if wood needed cutting. The strangely practical viewpoint was rather frightening.

"How are we doing?" Zero asked, just to make conversation, and X shot him a puzzled look, his red eyes glinting. Zero had noticed that the light in his eyes wasn't just his spirit… they seemed reflective, where the second Copy X's eyes had been darker. This one's eyes really did glitter like the finest rubies.

"After a single day? We're making good time, not that it means anything. Was there something you wanted?" X wasn't one to waste time on tact, although he was perfectly capable of small talk when there were women about to impress. Despite the kiss X had given Zero earlier, he didn't really qualify. Zero was silent for a moment.

"When did you pick up those bags?" That question was still bothering Zero, but X only grinned.

"Ah, that would be telling! Any other questions?"

"…Alright." Zero paused, very reluctant to ask his next question. It was personal and invasive. But the dramatic differences between Copy X and his prototype had to be explored. "Why did you leave Neo Arcadia?" The humor slowly drained out of X's face, replaced by a look in his eyes that surprised Zero. Those beautifully expressive eyes were haunted, almost hunted. X turned away from him, looking over the rail into the water.

"Because I couldn't be what Ciel wanted," he said quietly, so softly Zero had to strain to hear. "I didn't want to disappoint her, but it would have killed me. A ruler, telling everyone what to do, responsible and tied down to one place…" Zero could hear the repugnance in his voice. "I had to get away, escape from them. Ciel, Harpuia, Phantom, none of them would have understood."

"For most people, being the ruler of the most powerful nation on Earth would have been their greatest dream," Zero observed neutrally. X managed a thin smile, and shook his head.

"I'm not most people. All I want is a boat, some booze, women, and a good fight somewhere along the way." X sighed, and quickly cheered up. "And that's what I have! Ha, if I'd stayed in Neo Arcadia, I'd either have done horribly and been happy or done well and wanted to die. Here, I'm the best at what I do and I love it! What could be better?"

"Nothing… for you." Copy X abruptly looked at Zero, his eyes glittering with a new emotion… anger. And Zero met those brilliant eyes with ice, his own face a mask. It was on the tip of his tongue to say what he thought… that X was a selfish child, putting his own wishes and desires above everyone else's welfare. Wasting all his talents and abilities on this little ship, ignoring the greater world that needed him. But his knowledge of human and Reploid interactions stopped him. Resentful, unhappy, doing his duty without love or joy, this prototype Copy X could have been the worst ruler Neo Arcadia had ever been cursed with. It was never wise to force someone into a role they could not bear. Zero had seen people forced into places where they should not be by circumstances, and it rarely turned out well. "I'm sorry. I should not judge you." The tension sang between them for a moment, before X turned away.

"Oh, I don't know… but I won't care if you do." X said lightly, and Zero smiled slightly. He was sure that was true. The only opinions that could really injure Copy X were those of Ema and Axl. "Ema says I have a wandering foot. A natural gypsy, a nomad… I bet I would have made a great Hun warlord!" Zero considered that, and nodded. He could picture X leading the screaming hordes on endless campaigns of conquest, to create an empire that would never be big enough for his restless nature. That almost made him glad X had limited himself to a boat. What could he have done if he had stayed in Neo Arcadia… and decided to expand it?

A horrible scream made them both jump. They ran to the aft section of the ship in time to see…

Zero activated his beam saber, eyes narrowing. Copy X only huffed out a disgusted sigh. "A Strangletree! Stupid." A massive vine had caught the Rebellion Soldier and hoisted him into the air. He was trying desperately to shoot it, but his arms were pinned to his sides. Ciel was screaming… but Axl and Ema didn't look particularly worried. Axl dashed up into the air, hovering and aiming a gun at the vine. A single shot neatly lopped it off, and X jumped off the ship, activating his Seraphim form and catching the soldier as he fell. That almost gave the Rebellion Soldier a second reason to spasm, begin caught in the huge clawed hands of what looked like the Rebellions greatest enemy… but it only lasted a moment, before X flew back onto the ship and went back to his angel armor, dropping the soldier onto the deck.

"What… what was that?" Ciel asked, horrified. What was left of the vine was thrashing in what looked like pain. Copy X looked at her in puzzlement.

"You don't have Strangletree's, where you come from?" He asked curiously, and all the newcomers looked at him like he'd grown an extra head.

"Of course not!" Ciel gulped, and started sorting through her backpack. "Where's my Geiger counter? That must be some kind of mutation." She couldn't imagine something like that occurring naturally. Axl shrugged, putting away his gun.

"They're harmless as long as you don't go too close to them. Pretty weak, too… really, their proper prey is small animals and children. That was a really big one." Axl idly poked the remains of the vine, which had ended up on the deck with the soldier. "They make a pretty good salad."

"Gaa!" Ciel immediately went to the railing to lose her last meal. Axl blinked, startled.

"Was it something I said?"

* * *

Strangletree salad, as it turned out, was indeed quite tasty. And the Rebellion Soldier in particular took a great deal of pleasure in eating something that had done its best to eat him.

Midway through their fourth day on the river, though, Copy X started grinning for no apparent reason. Zero, Leviathan and Ciel knew enough about him now to be seriously worried. They got more worried when Ema threw a cloak over X, and another over Axl, and peremptorily ordered Zero and Leviathan to make themselves inconspicuous.

"Why?" Zero asked, and Ema grinned, her eyes twinkling wickedly.

"Well, if you had a low, suspicious mind like the three of us, you might have noticed some fresh burns near the river. And… if you had really good eyesight as well as that low, suspicious mind, you might have noticed a bit of smoke away up where the river is bending." She pointed to a clump of vegetation ahead, where the river made a lazy curve. "And it might make you think… could there be a ship hidden behind that curve, and some lazy, careless fool of a pirate is smoking his pipe?" Ema looked over at Ciel. "Perhaps you should get down below."

"What about you?" Zero casually stepped behind a barrel, kneeling down easily. He could see what this was now… the ambushers were about to become the ambushees. Ema just shook her head, and opened her purple vest to reveal her white blouse… and the criss-crossing black straps over it. Zero frowned slightly, regarding them. They had strange nodes in them that looked vaguely familiar, and right now, those nodes were gleaming with faint blue light.

"This is a force field generator. It's weak, but it'll protect me a touch so I can duck below when the fighting starts." She grinned widely. "I'm a bit of bait in the trap." Zero nodded, and glanced out at X and Axl. They were both looking remarkably human, now, and remarkably old. It was mostly in the posture and the way they were moving… they had obviously done this before. By the time the pirates realized otherwise, it would be far too late.

Things went exactly as Zero had expected. The ships defenses were already spooled up when the pirates attacked, and the shock of seeing their plasma bolts splash against unseen defenses made them hesitate. That hesitation turned fatal when X threw away his cloak, changing to his angel armor and vaulting into their ship. Axl dashed across to it, Zero and Leviathan following, and the rest of the battle was a bloody massacre. The crew of the pirate ship was mixed humans and Reploids, but it didn't make much difference to the powerful group.

Many of the pirates escaped by jumping into the river and swimming for shore. X amused himself by firing into the water at their heels, but he wasn't serious about getting rid of them, to Zero's relief. He wasn't sure what he would have done if Copy X had been callous enough to kill defenseless men and women swimming for their lives, even if they likely deserved to die. According to Axl, pirates were under an automatic sentence of death almost everywhere.

"The loot isn't bad," Axl announced, and Zero turned, appalled, to see what Axl was doing. He was riffling through the bodies, confiscating every bit of jewelry and coin they had on them. "For a bunch of river rats, anyway. Nothing to write home about." X immediately joined in with the grisly chore, showing every sign of enjoyment.

"Ohh, I think I found the captain!" Copy X laughed as he tried on a silver bracelet. "Very nice, don't you think?" Zero met Ciel's eyes, as she stared at him from the _Bad Penny._ She looked just as horrified as he felt. Zero slowly turned his head to look at Leviathan, and shivered faintly as the wind plucked his hair, beading the blood splattered across his armor.

For the first time in years, he felt sick. Not by the death, but the callous looting of the bodies. Yet, from the way X and Axl were acting, it was completely normal.

What kind of world had they stumbled into?


	6. Chapter 6

After the battle, Copy X and the others cleaned everything up by throwing the human bodies into the river. Ciel had recovered from her horror a bit, and objected to dirtying the water, but Ema assured her that the river crabs would make short work of everything. The Reploid bodies, those still marginally intact, were stored in the _Bad Penny_'s hold. Apparently, they would have value as salvage and scrap metal at their next stop, a small town named San Fernando. A puzzling name, since they recognized it from Neo Arcadia, but the history of mankind had consisted of many migrations and colonizations. Who knew when the place had been named? In Neo Arcadia, it was an old name.

The next day, Zero woke up with a very peculiar feeling. He frowned, slowly easing himself out of the hammock X and the others had provided for him.

Glancing around, he saw that X, Axl and Ema were gone. That was unusual. At night, they ran the ship on a very slow auto-pilot function, with a single person on the deck to watch for trouble. That let everyone get enough sleep, and with seven of them to share the duty, it was even easier. Zero checked his internal timer. It was dawn, but just barely dawn… X and Axl should still have been asleep. Ema always took the early morning shift. But that wasn't the source of his feeling… no, there was something else wrong. Something that had woken him prematurely.

Zero suddenly blinked as he realized what it was, and he reached over to gently shake Leviathan awake. She woke up with a gasp, and almost fell out of her hammock.

"Shhh," Leviathan started to say something, and Zero shook his head. "Shh. The engine's off." Leviathan's eyes widened, then narrowed as she understood what he meant. The fusion generator that kept this ship running had been shut off. But why?

The two of them cautiously left the cabin, letting Ciel and the Rebellion soldier sleep. When they got to the deck, they saw something rather peculiar.

X and Axl were pushing the ship along with long, metal poles, one on each side. Ema was tapping a drum as Copy X sang…

_From the Barque in the Harbor I went roaming on shore,_

_And stepped into a pub where I was oft times before,_

_And as I was sitting and enjoying my glass,_

_Who chanced to walk in but a young Spanish lass._

Ema joined in on the chorus, her soft, sweet voice weaving with X's deeper, but still tenor voice. The melody they made was sweet and firm. Zero would have interrupted, but Leviathan squeezed his arm, her eyes wide.

_Don't you leave me Jolly sailor were the words she did cry,_

_Waving and weeping and wiping her eyes,_

_When you reach home in your own __Newfoundland_

_Think of the young Spaniard kept squeezing your hand._

Then Ema sang alone… even Zero was enchanted. Her voice was like a bird rising, into the dawn mist of the jungle river…

_I'll give you fairwell on a fine summers' breeze,_

_But love don't forget me when you're crossing the sea,_

_And when you are married and enjoying your bride,_

_Think of the young maiden who lay by your side…_

Finally, the song finished, and Leviathan let go of Zero's arm with a small sigh. Zero stepped out before they could start another.

"Why is the engine off? And why are you using those poles?" He asked. X and Ema started, surprised by him, but Axl looked over with a lazy smile.

"There's leeches in the river here." Zero and Leviathan exchanged a puzzled glance.

"And this means you have to turn off the engine why, exactly?" Leviathan asked, tilting her head to one side. Axl grinned at her.

"Jump into the water and see!" Leviathan eyed the water dubiously, and declined with a headshake. "Well, you see, the leeches here are a bit… aggressive. Heat and vibration attracts them, and they secrete this really nasty acid. If we ran the generator in this water, they'd eat right through the hull and sink us. They can get through titanium, too, so they can be dangerous to Reploids." Not too terribly dangerous… it took them some time to work though armor… but dangerous. "They're a natural mutation, and they prey on Dozers."

"Dozers?" Zero asked, frowning slightly. He didn't like all the strange plants and animals they had encountered on this trip. The jungle wildlife was definitely showing the effects of exposure to radiation. Axl nodded, poling in time with X, and Zero suddenly noticed that Ema's slow, rhythmic drumming had a purpose. She was keeping them in synch.

"Nasty little scavengers. Some people say they were created by the Mavericks in the last war, to clean up the battlefields. They're based on armadillos, and their organic, but they take bits and pieces of shattered metal and glue it to themselves as a shell. Weirdest thing you ever saw… especially when you can recognize Reploid armor in there." Zero shook his head at the thought, and glanced into the water again… then frowned as he saw something long and dark clinging to X's pole. It dropped off after a moment, but he blinked as he saw a groove in the metal. This explained why there were more than two poles on the ship… there were several others lashed to each side of the rail, but he'd never really thought about them before.

Things were uneventful until mid-morning, when they encountered an old woman poling her own boat slowly down the river. It was much smaller than theirs, almost a canoe, but she showed no signs of being interested in or intimidated by them at all. Actually, she gave them a dirty look, although Zero couldn't imagine why. X shoved his pole into Leviathan's hands.

"Here, hold this," he said, and jumped up onto the rail. "Hey! Lady! How far is it to San Fernando?" There was no reply, as she avoided even looking at X. He queried her several more times, before getting fed up and shouting as she was almost past them. "Hey, you old bitch, can't you hear a word I'm saying?" That finally got a response, although not the sort Copy X wanted. She raised her pole and neatly slipped it between X's feet, knocking him off the rail and into the water. "AAAAIIIEEE!"

The next few minutes were full of surprise, confusion and frantic attempts to get X out of the river. X assumed his Seraphim mode after a few minutes, and rocketed out of the mucky water, covered in thick black leeches. He immediately dropped into his angel armor and hit the deck.

"Get them off, get them off, get them off!" He yelled, almost panicking. Ema had calmly gone for a spray bottle, and she used it now, industriously spraying all the leeches with a concentration of salts. The leeches shriveled and immediately dropped off. Most hadn't gotten through his armor, but a few had, and bodily fluids joined the river muck on his armor.

"What was that witch's problem?" Axl asked, astonished, as he picked up and threw leeches back into the water. Ciel knelt down to help, as Zero and Leviathan kept the ship on an even keel. Ema looked thoughtful as X whined at the pain and damage to his armor.

"We're close to Manna. I wonder if she could be one of the village elders who escaped?" If that was true, it would explain why she hated their guts. X looked up, his red eyes suddenly blazing.

"I should go after her and kill her!" But Axl shook his head, reaching over to pat X's shoulder.

"If she has any sense, she's already tied up that canoe and hit the bush. You'd never find her. Just stay still." X whined again, but did that as Ema cleaned out his wounds.

"Besides, you were asking for it." Ema said, carefully cleaning away any vestiges of the acid. Then she frowned. "X, it's not THAT bad, stop whining! You sound like a dying puppy!" X tilted his head to meet her gaze, expression pathetic, then whined again. "Oh… alright!" Ema sighed, then laughed and gave X a kiss. "Manipulator."

"Mmm hmm." X agreed with a smile, looking more cheerful. "Thanks Ema." He rested his head in her lap, closing his eyes with a sigh. Axl shook his head, and got up to take over one of the poles.

Finally, Axl looked at the water skeptically. It was still dark and gloomy, but… "Hey Ema! I think we might be past the leeches. Could you get the tester?" She nodded, and pushed X's head off her lap before going downstairs into the ship. She came back up with a little generator in a hard titanium box, on a spool of thread. Starting it up, she slowly lowered it into the water. After a few moments of waiting, she drew it up and smiled. There were no leeches on it. "Okay, let's get the engine started again."

"Right away." Ema went down below, grabbing the bottle of rum on her way before X could grasp it. He slumped back down on the deck.

"Aw, but I'm hurt…" Axl laughed at his self-pitying tone, and Ciel giggled. Soon, everyone was laughing at him, and Copy X looked at them all with a rather offended expression. "It's not funny!"

"You got your ass kicked by a little old lady, X," Axl said with a grin. "Yes, it's funny."

"Pttthhh…" X sulked as they puttered down the river.

His sulks didn't last long, though. Soon, they reached San Fernando, which cheered him up immensely. "At last! Good food, wine, women and song!" X tried to wipe the muck off his armor, and only smeared it. "And a bath!"

"A bath!" Ciel went starry-eyed at the mention of that long forgotten thing. She had been making do with water taken from the river and purified through several layers of canvas, but that didn't allow for more than a sponging of important areas and a quick hair rinse. Ema and Leviathan looked equally blissful at the prospect. Zero, Axl and the Rebellion soldier weren't nearly as interested, but they were men and not covered in goo like X. "They have baths here?"

"Oh yes." Ema laughed. "Although I should warn you… they're co-ed." That made Ciel pause for a moment, but only a moment.

"I don't care if they have trolls in them, I want a bath!" Copy X laughed merrily as he jumped down onto the dock and tied up the boat.

San Fernando, as it turned out, was a sleepy little town that just barely rated the name of city. Unlike the other places they had seen, the structures were mostly built out of stone. Apparently, some quirk of geography tended to spare this place from typhoon damage. Compared to Hell's Mouth, the dockworkers were very lazy with their duties, unloading ships slowly. But there were very few ships, beyond a few fishing boats. Some trade came down this river, but apparently the vast majority dealt with sea traffic. Although…

"I thought you said Larkspur did manufacturing?" Zero said with a frown. "How do they transport their items?"

"With shuttles," Copy X answered promptly. "Getting big shipments from Larkspur to the river would be a pain, and even if they did, the river isn't big enough for the kind of ships they'd need. Air freight is safe as long as it's for short hops."

"I see… why do shuttles crash, around here?" Zero knew they did, because Neo Arcadia had tried to send several before embarking on this mission. None had returned, and X's story of how his own shuttle had malfunctioned was pretty clear. He was lucky he could fly, and Axl had been close enough to save him. But Copy X only spread his hands with a shrug… that was a question he had no answer to.

Quite soon, they found the bathhouse. Every resident pointed them that way almost before they asked, to the girl's embarrassment and the guy's amusement. X broke off another link of his chains, and added a gold bead to have the clothes laundered and armor cleaned. Then they went into the changing room.

"Aren't you going to get undressed?" Ema said to Leviathan and Ciel, slightly confused. X and Axl were already stripping off their armor, and Zero was following their lead… although it hadn't quite occurred to him that he would be stripping off his clothes in this room, too. Ciel blushed brightly as Leviathan blinked.

"Uh… right here? In front of them…" Ciel turned slightly to look at Copy X, and he gave her a saucy grin. "Oh no way!" Ema snorted.

"Ignore the lecher. But yes, there is no separate room for men and women. Why should there be, when we'll be sharing the bath?" She stripped free her shirt. "You'll have to change here." There was a great deal of hesitation, still, but then a treacherous idea occurred to both of the girls. Zero was about to be naked…

Ciel gulped, and slowly started removing her clothes as Leviathan started on her armor. They both occasionally peeked at Zero's progress… it took some effort for Axl to convince him that yes, he really was supposed to take off his jumpsuit here. X was already gone by that time, interested in getting clean and impressing the girls with his manly body. And it really was a good body, Ciel had to admit. She'd made it herself and- _No, no, down treacherous thoughts!_

The bath itself consisted of two separate pools. One was smaller, and obviously reserved for children, since a group of small ones were playing a water polo game in it. The other pool was lightly populated with adults, and steaming warmly. Ciel blinked as she saw all the signs of high technology in this setup. The water was being continuously heated and filtered to create this pleasant environment, and it suddenly occurred to her why the baths were co-ed. Creating two separate areas for adults and children had probably been expensive enough, without segregating the sexes. And given how rowdy the children were, compared to the quiet adults, this had probably seemed wiser. No one paid any attention as they slipped into the water. Ciel took another peek at Zero, and blushed… Zero was blushing and looking quite embarrassed, which was really very cute.

Copy X, on the other hand, was comfortable with his nakedness and already chatting up a pretty girl. Leviathan watched them curiously for a moment, then glanced at Ema, who was scrubbing her hair. "Ema? Doesn't that bother you?"

"Hm, what?" Ema looked up, then followed Leviathan's wave to where X was nuzzling the girl. "No, not really," she said with a grin. "They can have him in the ports, but the rest of the time he's mine! Besides, half the time I go along with him…" Leviathan blushed at that picture, and glanced over at Zero, then Ciel, speculatively. But no, that probably wouldn't work…

X lost his companion to a man who practically had FATHER tattooed on his forehead in neon lettering. The look he gave Copy X was so flinty, it could have been used to strike sparks off iron. X took the loss philosophically, and immediately started looking for someone less well defended. Coming up dry, he swam over to Ciel, much to her embarrassment.

"So, momma! Having a fun time?" X said brightly, his eyes twinkling as Ciel tried futilely to shield her chest from him. Just to be a pain, he leaned over to get a better view. "Why are you trying to hide those? They're really quite nice-ow! Ema!" X winced as she lightly smacked him.

"Stop looking at your mother's breasts, X." Ema said serenely, making Ciel turn brick red and Leviathan suppress a laugh. "Or this could end up like Oedipus, and I think he gouged his own eyes out."

"Wow, how bad did his mother's breasts look…? I'm going, I'm going!" X swam away with a grin as Ema menaced him. Leviathan did laugh, then, as Ciel looked like she wanted to die a thousand deaths. Especially when Zero swam over.

"What's going on?" He asked curiously.

"Nothing!" Ciel said, her voice more high pitched than usual. "Nothing at all!" The sight of Zero's bare chest, his beautiful hair flowing around him, right after X's comments was winding her up like a jack in the box. And she wasn't at all sure what was going to happen when she popped. Zero looked puzzled, glancing at Ema's amused expression, and Leviathan, who was making odd little choking sounds.

"Strange nothing…" Ciel made a sound like a teakettle getting ready to blow, and Zero suddenly decided to change the subject. He had no idea what was going on here, but it looked like finding out might be bad for his health. "Axl's going to go find us rooms at an inn, and he wanted to know if you two will share?" Their tentative plan was Ciel and Leviathan in one room, Zero, the Rebellion soldier and Axl in another, and X and Ema in the last.

"S-Sure!" Ciel said, still too high pitched. Zero quickly swam away, and Ema shook her head with a grin.

"That was smooth. Why didn't you invite him into your room? A little tension relief…" Ciel finally popped with a small scream, jumping out of the pool and running back to the change room. Leviathan toppled over into the pool, twitching with laughter… even more because she'd been thinking the exact same thing earlier. Ema looked after Ciel, then down at Leviathan, faintly bemused. "You people are strange." That only made her laugh harder.

Was that the pot calling the kettle black, or what?

* * *

Finally, they reached the village of Marran, where they intended to leave the ship. The villagers did indeed recognize X, and did not greet his presence with warmth. But they did refrain from spitting on him, even if it was mostly out of fear. Copy X seemed indifferent to the muttered comments and the glares they were receiving… until he calmly and smilingly told one man who pushed it a bit too far what would happen to him if he used that word again. They were avoided after that.

The village itself wasn't very interesting. Much like the fisherman's village they had stopped at early on, only larger and filthier. Zero wrinkled his nose. Hell's Mouth had been filthy, but it had been a lively organic filth, the filth generated by something young and growing. This little village stank of decay. There were many abandoned buildings, and he estimated that it had been much larger at one time, perhaps as large as San Fernando. He wasn't really surprised, now, that these people had cooperated with pirates. Unlike the fishermen, who had never had anything, these people had once had prosperity and wanted it back.

X went to negotiate with the town elders, and this time, he refused to take Zero along. Zero grimaced as he remembered what had happened in Hell's Mouth…

_X was facing a tall, powerful looking Reploid with deep black skin and jade green armor. Two other Reploids were there, animal types, obviously his bodyguards. The frightened apothecary was trying desperately to get some of his stock, the most expensive, out of the room. If the fragile glass shattered, the expensive spices would be worth nothing._

_"Raphael. It's been a long time," X said with a pleasant smile, and the other Reploid matched it with a smile that was equally pleasant. Zero was reminded of two cobras, slowly circling each other…_

_X was still speaking, but Zero couldn't concentrate on it. He could feel weakness welling up inside him, and gritted his teeth. Not NOW. Anytime but now. That man was vicious as a snake and if he got any scent of weakness…_

_No use. Zero collapsed to his knees, there was a shout and the sound of shattering glass. Zero was vaguely aware that X had swept several jars off the wall, smashing them into the enemy to hinder their attack, before he passed out…_

It had been a very brief attack, fortunately. Zero had come to in time to help out with the battle, then sprint with them back to the ship. But his weakness had triggered the attack. The situation in Marran wasn't as bad, but Copy X still didn't want to risk looking weak in front of people who clearly hated him, even if he had only given them their just dues.

It took some time, but X, Axl and Leviathan finally came back to the ship. X was cheerful, Axl was thoughtful and Leviathan looked plain murderous.

"What happened?" Zero asked, reflecting that he seemed to be asking that a lot lately. X grinned widely.

"Oh, the new village elder is a slime bucket! A cretin! A complete ass with rather good taste in-ow!" Leviathan had hit him sharply over the head with her staff. After a week on a boat with him, she'd gotten over any lingering respect for Master X. Or at least, had separated this copy from her own, in her own mind. Axl broke in, trying to diffuse the situation.

"He suggested we could pay for storing our boat here with services from Leviathan. We declined, pointedly. He finally accepted some of X's emeralds." Axl gave Copy X an amused and exasperated look. "And someone thinks all of this is hilarious."

"Funniest thing to happen since Ciel in the bath," X agreed with a grin. "And I think he was actually serious! This place must seriously be running short on elders if they elected the village idiot."

"Well, we did kill them all last time. X, catch!" Ema said, tossing down a backpack. X caught it easily, and slipped it over his shoulders. Axl's backpack followed, then Zero's and Leviathan's. They were ready to embark on the next leg of their journey. Overland, through the jungle.

Zero vaguely wondered exactly how unpleasant it would be.


	7. Chapter 7

"Are we almost there?" Ciel asked, red-faced and exhausted. She was in very fit condition, for a human scientist, but that wasn't saying much. She glanced over at Ema enviously… the other woman seemed to be indifferent to the heat and the bugs that were swarming around them, all trying to get a sip of their blood. The jungle was really much worse for bugs than the river. Possibly because the river had a breeze, while the jungle had none at all.

Worse yet were the animals. The larger ones avoided them, but Ciel had narrowly escaped being bitten by a venomous snake. X had spotted it and killed it before it had gotten close. But Ema's cheerful commentary on how it was a two-step snake… you could take precisely two steps after being bitten before you died… had not helped at all. Nor had the realization that the snake was another mutation.

"Another day," Ema said, peering around at the vegetation suspiciously, on the lookout for snakes. "But you and I will only be going to the lookout post."

"Say what?" Ciel said, turning red not just from exhaustion. "We can't go all the way to the city? Why not?"

"It's irradiated," Ema said calmly. "If you like the idea of having all your teeth and hair fall out…"

"Then why are you and I going at all?" Ciel would gladly have stayed on the ship, and been spared this utterly miserable trek through the jungle. Copy X laughed, and Ema flashed her a grin. Leviathan and Zero both glanced at Ema, wondering what the explanation was. The trip would have been much easier without Ciel, and even Ema slowed them.

"Stay on the ship? In Marran? With the villagers who hate us and the village elder who tried to proposition Leviathan? We might have survived his body, but surely not his breath!" Ciel looked confused for a moment, then paled as she suddenly realized what Ema meant.

"You really think they would have…?" She glanced at Copy X, who smiled, but it was a cold, razor edged smile. He nodded.

"Probably. Then tried to blame it on pirates or something… of course, to do that, you would both have to be dead. We'd have killed him and razed the village, but it wouldn't bring you back." That silenced everyone for a while. Then Axl spoke.

"I should probably tell you a bit about Larkspur. It's a bit different from the rest of the villages, towns and cities you'll find around here."

"Oh?" Zero queried, using his saber to hack a path for them. There was a road, after a fashion, but it was plain gravel and had been untended for so long that plants were industriously working through it.

"Right… it was founded by religious refugees from Tartoga bay. That's some place on the African coast… anyway, they have a really peculiar religious thing going on. Christian, really heavy on gospel music and feeling Jesus." Axl poked X affectionately, who grinned widely. "Also a huge emphasis on free love and some sacramental, smokeable plants thrown in for grins. The established churches in Tartoga bay drove them out as heretics, I can't imagine why."

"Oh… I see," Zero said, shaking his head. "Are you sure they'll have fusion generators?"

"Yes and no," Axl said with a small grimace. "I mean, they will have fusion generators, the ones they use in the hovercars they produce. They mostly make hovercars and those hoverboards you saw in Hell's Mouth. But I don't know if they can make units small enough to fit into you." Then he spoke more cheerily. "But I think they got updates on their fusion tech from somewhere else, so they can probably give us an idea where to go."

"And even if they can't, we can sell our jewels there for a really good price," X put in cheerfully. "They're all rich and they love gems for jewelry! And the girls there are just wonderful."

"We all know what's most important to you, X," Ema said dryly. "Try not to wear yourself out entirely before you get back, I have plans for you." Everyone laughed at that, and concentrated on the path.

Eventually, they reached the lookout post. It was basically a little house, with a small booth right beside the road. Both were made of fine white stone, apparently a native material. It was clear the lookouts were lacking for things to do, because one was asleep and the other was drunk. Very, very drunk, in the middle of the path. X surreptitiously tried to steal his bottle, and got a dirty look from Ema. "Hey, it's not like he'll miss it!"

"He will when he wakes up. Speaking of which…" She reached over to shake the second Reploid, who woke up with a start. He had been sitting in the booth, asleep, with his head in his arms.

"Urk… visitors?" He blinked rapidly, rubbing his eyes. "…Holy crap, visitors! First visitors I ever did see… Hey, where the hell is Arkan?"

"You mean this guy?" Axl grinned, poking the unconscious body with a foot. "I bet he wouldn't notice if I shot him in the leg." The Reploid in the lookout booth stood up to get a clear view of his friend. He was wearing bright purple armor, enameled with drunken-looking blue flowers, and a strange mix of gold and silver bangles on his wrists. His buddy on the ground was garbed in neon pink, with an aqua fabric vest similar to X's. Except that it was embroidered with green vines, and had only silver chains.

"God damn… I sleep for a little while and he does that!" The lookout sighed, rubbing his head, and looked them over with dark green eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm Cobol, and that cretin is Fortran. How may we assist you?"

"I know how you could assist ME." X said brightly, and pointed to the passed out Fortran. "May I pillage the body?" Cobol laughed.

"I'd love to let you, but he'll wake up soon and be pissed."

"Actually, we want to go to Larkspur," Axl broke in smoothly. "Could Ciel and Ema stay here with you? And what's the toll?"

"You know about the radiation, eh?" Cobol rubbed his head. "The toll, I dunno… we haven't had travelers so long… let me check the binder." He pulled out a slim little binder, and started riffling through it. "Tolls, tolls… one ounce of gold for a party." X nodded, pulling off a bangle and passing it over. The Reploid quickly weighed it, then passed a small ring back as change. "Thanks. A few more people and maybe we'll be able to hack down all the weeds." He stepped out of the toll booth, and swept a bow to Ciel and Ema. "Ladies! You look tired. Would you like to visit my home? It's not much, but it has plumbing and a water heater."

"Another bath?" Ciel sighed. "That would be heavenly." After a few days in the jungle, she was ripe again. The heat was quite ghastly. Soon, she and Ema were ensconced in the house… Zero was slightly worried, after their comments about the village elders, but Copy X and Axl were able to reassure him. They had done this before, and the Reploids of Larkspur were trustworthy.

Without the humans slowing them, they were able to break into a run and go considerably faster. Although…

Zero slowed unconsciously, as he smelled something incredibly, intoxicatingly sweet. Leviathan looked enchanted, sniffing the air energetically… but to his surprise, Axl was scowling and X was looking annoyed.

"How did that get here?" Axl complained. "Those stupid toll booth guys should have killed it ages ago!"

"Killed it?" Leviathan said, caught off guard. "But it smells wonderful!"

"Well, of course it does," X said with a scowl. "That's how it… ah!" Something small and crablike trundled into the path. It looked like a mechanical turtle, although they couldn't see any eyes. On the shell, were hundreds of long, wavery fronds in hundreds of colors. They all looked furry, soft and cuddly to the touch… and the glorious scent was intoxicating. Zero tried to give it a name. Attar of roses? Essence of Plumera? Leviathan sighed and stepped forward-

And was jerked back rudely by Copy X, who was aiming his gun at the small creature. Zero saw, startled, that he was back in his angel armor and charging his gun.

"What are you doing?" Leviathan gasped, gripping X's arm.

"Destroying that thing," X said, not taking his eyes off it. "It smells wonderful to attract you. Those fronds do feel nice… and they deliver an electrical charge. It's more than enough to paralyze an unwary Reploid. Then it kills you, but it's not very efficient at it. It would probably take it hours to get through your armor… and it starts with whatever part is closest. That's usually an arm. So it takes a long, long time to die." He finally released his shot, and the little monster exploded with a high pitched cry.

"Where did it come from?" Zero asked, shaken. Axl glanced over, and shrugged, putting his guns away. X had handled it well without his help.

"We don't know… but we think someone must still be creating them and seeding them all over the place. That smell they have? It's repulsive to humans. It only attracts Reploids." Axl explained.

"Someone MUST be seeding the damn things to get one this close to Larkspur," X said, annoyed. "They know about the little bastards, and they kill them on sight."

"Well, nevermind… let's get going." Stepping over the corpse, they all kept walking to Larkspur. Soon, they could see the city in the distance.

"Is that a real city?" Leviathan asked dubiously. Copy X grinned, and Axl laughed softly.

"Yep, it is. I don't blame you for doubting it, though." Axl replied playfully. The city up ahead was… odd. Most of it was made from the same white stone as the lookout station. But the roofs were painted every color under the sun, from bright purple to a particularly virulent orange. As they walked down into the city, they could see that some of the walls had been painted with murals. The subject matter was a trifle… odd. Some of it would have appealed to Christians of any stripe, like a beautiful portrayal of the virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus. Although the circle of flowers surrounding them might have been a trifle surprising. The rest of the murals, though, were mostly flowers and complex, geometric pictures. And a few were… Zero pulled his eyes away with a blush. He was sure that wasn't a feature of most religions.

The city wasn't very busy, though. That probably wasn't surprising, since it was so difficult to reach, but Zero was a bit surprised by how few residents there seemed to be. And everyone was very surprised to see them. Several people were soon coming over to greet them.

"X!" A beautiful girl with African skin and thick, curly black hair hugged Copy X tightly. He returned the embrace, and kissed her… Axl watched, amused, then smiled as a blond girl greeted him.

"I hope they're not going to expect me to sleep with someone…" Leviathan grumbled, eyeing several of the males. They were mostly nice looking, but she had only one person in mind… Zero shook his head.

"They may believe in free love, but I doubt it's mandatory." Zero said to her quietly. Leviathan blushes, and looked at Zero hopefully, having a treacherous thought about the 'sacred weed'. If Zero tried it…

Her attention was caught by a very tall, handsome Reploid in purple armor. He was wearing a white cloak and a thick gold chain around his throat, with a strange symbol hanging from it. Zero frowned. The symbol was vaguely familiar, although he couldn't place it.

"X, Axl!" The man smiled warmly, shaking hands with both of them. Then he glanced at Zero and Leviathan curiously.

"Hello, Gate," Axl said cheerfully. "This is Zero, and this is Leviathan. She's from Neo Arcadia." Gate's reaction to the news was rather peculiar. He stared at Zero, surprised, then slowly looked him over. His expression turned faintly disbelieving, as he glanced at Axl. "I know, it's a terrible remake, but that's just the way it is."

"What?" Zero said, surprised… then frowned at them both. "You knew me from before, didn't you?" Axl looked faintly sheepish, and Gate was amused.

"Only slightly… my main claim to fame is that once, a long time ago, you spared my life." Gate paused thoughtfully. "Although, I suppose if it weren't for you I wouldn't have gone mad in the first place… but! That was long ago. It's gone and forgotten." He waved it away. "This is my home now, and my people. So, what are you here for?" He smiled gently, a twinkle in his eye. "I doubt you came for the joy of our company… well, most of you." He said with a glance at X, who was now greeting two other young ladies. None of whom were at all jealous of the others.

"We always love your hospitality, but no, Zero has a problem… his fusion generator is failing." Axl explained. "So we were wondering if you could make one to fit him?" Gate winced.

"A class-A fusion generator? No. The best we can here is class B." Gate looked at Zero with a small frown. "Actually… we could re-tool a class B generator to fit him. They're the right size… but there would be a degradation of function." Axl brightened, and Zero tilted his head to one side, considering that.

"What kind of degradation?" Axl questioned, and Gate shrugged.

"A drop in stamina. He wouldn't be able to maintain heavy activity as long, or take as much damage… his reflexes might also slow, but that would be slight. I estimate his efficiency would be cut by twenty-five percent." Axl winced, then glanced at Zero.

"Do you want to?" Even if his efficiency would be cut, the time constraint would be off them. Zero wouldn't be passing out randomly, either. Zero hesitated, but only for a moment.

"Yes, but we still have to find a proper generator." He wasn't going back to Neo Arcadia with his fighting power down. He looked searchingly at Gate. "Do you know where we could find one?" Gate shook his head.

"Not directly. Our last support from Hope's Dream was ages ago, and I have heard they moved. I can rule some places out, however. Places we create Reploids for." With class B generators, Larkspur was a major manufacturing centre for Reploids. Fairly good ones, although not something a place capable of class A generators would buy. "And I could give you a better map than those wretched things X makes."

"Hey!" X overheard that, and protested. "My maps at least have hazards written on 'em."

"In symbols no one else understands," Gate replied easily. "Come, the maps are in the community centre." Gate led them into a very large building. The roof had been painted a rather pretty mint green, and the murals on the walls were a little different from the usual… very pretty landscape scenes, from what looked like a deciduous forest. The trees would not have looked out of place in most of Neo Arcadia. It was nothing like the jungle that surrounded the town. Zero wondered if perhaps it was the kind of landscape Gate had enjoyed when he was young.

Inside, there were thick, hand woven carpets all over the floor. Zero looked them carefully, interested… they had dozens of different patterns, but the most common seemed to be vines and flowers. Several people were sitting on the rugs, meditating, and a few were smoking pipes. Zero wrinkled his nose at the smell, and glanced over at X, who grinned.

"The sacred smokeables." X said lightly. Gate glanced over at them, amused.

"Indeed." He examined one of the Reploids smoking for a brief moment. "It may not lead to enlightenment, as some people claim, but as long as it's limited to one pipe a day it's a harmless habit."

"Ah…" They followed Gate as he led them to what appeared to be a work room. There was very high tech equipment against the walls, and a lab table where a half-completed Reploid lay. They examined the Reploid, interested… she was very short, with thick purple hair and gold checkmarks on her cheeks. She was being built with a shoulder cannon, and looked like a combat model. Gate very gently picked her up, and set her on the floor… there was only enough room for one table. Fortunately, the floor was extremely clean and wouldn't harm her.

"I have a good class B generator here." Gate picked it up, and nodded at the Reploid. "It was meant to be hers, but she can wait a bit. If you'll just lie down…" Soon, Gate was looking through Zero's systems as the others waited.

It wasn't a very long wait. Gate was extremely efficient, retooling the generator rapidly and carefully inserting it as Zero ran on life supports. He carefully checked the generator for a few minutes, then nodded, satisfied. He quickly roused Zero, who sat up with a wince.

"How do you feel?" Leviathan asked, tilting her head to one side. Zero rubbed his chest, assessing himself, then winced.

"I'm much weaker." He could already feel it. On the other hand… "I feel steadier, though." He had none of the precarious feeling he all too often had before, when his generator was thinking of doing a fade out. "It feels a bit better."

"It should. Most Reploids have that style of generator, on this side of the ocean." Gate said. "Although class C generators are slightly commoner." Leviathan nodded.

"Class C is the most common in Neo Arcadia. We can only make Class B using crystals." Gate blinked at her, then frowned slightly.

"That sounds inconvenient. Would you perhaps like a copy of the plans for Class B generators?" He said politely, and Leviathan blinked in shock. She had expected that she would only be able to buy generators, the sort that were difficult to take apart without causing them to explode… and very difficult to reverse engineer. But to be offered the plans…

"Are you sure?" Axl said with a frown. "No offense, Lady Leviathan, but I know what Neo Arcadia thinks about us. And no one over here has any desire to end up under a boot heel." While the individual cities and states were strong, here, the lack of any real central government or control would make them vulnerable to attack. And with a few exceptions, most of them didn't have the technological edge to offset their lack of population, compared to Neo Arcadia. A lot of places were outright barbaric.

"Neo Arcadia has never been expansionist," Zero cut in. "As much as I don't like their policies, I would have to admit that. Those stories mostly served to keep their citizenry from leaving." Leviathan shot him a grateful look. "And this gift could keep Reploids from being retired. But would you also provide those plans to the Rebellion?" Axl looked dubious, but Gate nodded.

"I would be glad to." He smiled slightly. "Now, here is a map…" They spent the next hour working out which places would definitely not have what they wanted, which might know where to find it, and which could possibly even make it.

"This is going to be a long trip," X finally said with a contented sigh. "I haven't done a tour of the African coast in a long time!"

The route they had planned was a long one. It would involve going upwards, to India, then around the African coast. That would take in a massive amount of territory… but with all the port towns, they were almost guaranteed to finally find someone who knew where the A-class generators were made. Gate carefully rolled up the map, slid it back into a tube, and presented it to a startled Axl with a smile.

"We can keep this?" He said, startled, and Gate shrugged.

"It's a copy of the original. And while the main points are correct, it's not too detailed… unlike X's maps." X grinned. He'd already mentioned that. He had many more maps than the three of this area, and he possessed at least partial maps for every single area they were planning to go to. Gate favored him with a look. "You needn't be so smug."

"Why not?" Copy X said cheerfully. "Mind if we stay for tonight's service?" Gate shook his head with a smile.

"I never thought you would miss it." Zero and Leviathan exchanged concerned glances, but couldn't think of any graceful way to ease out of it. But they were both worried about what the sacraments would be.

As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as they had feared. There was a brief sermon by Gate, about God's plan and the unity of all thinking beings. Gate was a good speaker, and his audience was very rapt. A few other people spoke as well, enthusiastically but with varying levels of skill. Some of the takes on reality were quite interesting, though. As the speeches were happening, several pipes were being passed around. When one reached Zero, he hesitated… but Leviathan poked him with a wide, brilliant smile on her face. She'd tried it first.

"Try it, it's good!" She said a bit too loudly. Zero hesitated a moment longer, then sighed and picked up the pipe, planning to only quickly try it. But the smoke was a shock, and he held it in his lungs longer than he had planned.

Zero blinked slowly as the room seemed to… expand. He slowly let out the smoke, watching the strange, pretty patterns it made in the air. Then he passed on the pipe, enjoying the dreamy haze. It was really quite pleasant…

The speeches ended, and everyone was meditating and… Zero blushed as he saw Copy X kissing a girl, another rubbing his shoulders. Axl was lying on the rugs, his head in another girl's lap as she petted his hair. Zero blinked as someone touched his shoulder, and he turned to see…

"Leviathan?" Zero murmured softly, grappling with the strangeness of the situation, his own mental state, and the look Leviathan was giving him… it reminded him vaguely of Ciel looking at a chocolate chip cookie she desperately wanted to eat. Longing.

"Zero," Leviathan sighed, and folded herself against him, kissing him deeply. Zero hesitated for a long moment… but she was so warm, so inviting against him. So beautiful… he returned the kiss, enfolding her in an embrace. This felt familiar, although he hadn't done it sense Ciel had activated him. Older memories were guiding him, and he knew exactly what to do…


	8. Chapter 8

"Ah…" Zero woke up very slowly the next day. He was warm, comfortable, and… curled up with Leviathan, under a blanket. Zero blushed terribly, remembering what they had done the previous night. He hesitated, then reached out to gently touch her hair. Leviathan sighed, burrowing tightly against his side… Larkspur was higher than any other town they had stayed it, and it had cooled over the night. Some thoughtful soul had provided everyone with blankets after the festivities, more to ward off the chill than any concern for modesty. Zero was fairly sure 'modesty' and 'Larkspur' generally didn't get mentioned in the same sentence.

Zero pushed himself up with one arm, and glanced around. A few people were awake, and some were pulling on smocks and brushing out their hair, before trotting off to their morning duties. Axl and X weren't present… Zero wondered what they were doing. Gate was awake, drinking a large mug of tea and eating… French toast? Whatever it was, it smelled delicious. Zero realized how hungry he was… he hadn't eaten much before…

Leviathan stirred with a sigh, and Zero looked down into her beautiful blue eyes. She smiled shyly, pushing herself up and nuzzling him affectionately. Zero hesitated a moment, then returned the attention. But…

"Levi… we're still enemies," he said softly. "Should we be doing this?" Leviathan winced, then shrugged.

"For now. But we have a common enemy, don't we? Weil," she said his name with smoldering anger. "Isn't about to leave Neo Arcadia alone, after all. And if we can get steady power sources from this place, we won't even need the Ciel system. We should be able to come to some kind of peace." That diverted Zero to a different thought.

"If it were that easy, though, why didn't Copy X trade for all the power you needed?" Zero wondered out loud. Leviathan was silent for a moment, then grimaced.

"I can only guess, but if I had to guess, I'd say that he didn't want us to be dependant on them." Leviathan glanced around the room, a little uneasily. "Even here… several of these people are combat models, Zero, maybe a little less powerful than Guardians, but Larkspur isn't as advanced as the real Hope's Dream, either. What will we find there? Was X right to worry?" Zero considered that, and didn't like the taste of it. But…

"He might have been right to worry, in terms of how many warriors they have and what they could do," he said softly. "But not what they would do. Larkspur is independent. So are Hell's Mouth, those fishermen, and all those places X mentioned we were going to visit. If they were going to conquer, wouldn't they start at home?" Leviathan stared at him a moment, then smiled, reassured.

"You're right. Of course, Master X couldn't have known about that." He had never gone across the sea. Leviathan stood up, pulling on her clothes as Zero looked away with a blush. "Ohh, I'm so hungry… what's for breakfast?" Gate looked up from his meal.

"We have French toast, or scrambled eggs with toast, if you prefer. There's some maple syrup for the French toast, as well, and tea, milk or water." Gate waved with his mug to another door. "Just go through there."

"Thank you," Leviathan said with a smile, then looked down at Zero. "What would you like?" If she was going to get her own, she might as well get his too. Zero considered it for a moment.

"French toast and tea, please. With sugar and milk, if they have any." Zero always preferred his tea sweetened. Leviathan nodded, leaving the room. Axl and X came in a moment later. They were both looking very bright, chipper and happy, and X was carrying a large bag that tinkled. Zero quickly got dressed, before sitting back down on the rugs.

"We sold all those gemstones to a jeweler," X said, pleased. "For a whole bunch of gold chains, bangles and rings!"

"That's why he's looking so glittery," Axl put in with a grin, and Copy X snorted, sticking his nose in the air.

"You're just jealous. Why don't you wear some, besides that belt?" The only jewelry Axl wore was a belt made of golden chains and black silk cords. It was knotted on one side, with chains dangling so they could be easily broken off. But Axl only laughed.

"And look like an advertisement for a jewelry store? No thanks. I'm too old for that style." Axl grinned at X, then winked at Zero. "When I was young… and Zero was sort of young… the only ones who wore that much gold were pimps." Zero blinked at that reference to his past, and eyed Axl speculatively. He'd already known that the other Reploid had known him from a long time ago, but this was the first hint that he remembered everything clearly.

"Ptth… oh, food!" X beamed at Leviathan as she came in with two plates of French toast, and two mugs. "Can I have some?"

"No," she answered promptly. "Go get your own." Copy X sighed, dejected, but went with Axl. Leviathan sat down beside Zero, passing him his plate. Zero smiled and thanked her, trying the toast. It was sweet and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Leviathan took a sip of her drink and almost choked.

"Puuh… what is this stuff?" She gasped, and Gate looked over, puzzled.

"Oh, you mean the goat's milk?" Gate smiled, faintly. "It's a touch stronger than cow milk, but we don't really have enough space for cows here."

"Oh." Leviathan wrinkled her nose, but tried the milk again and managed to hold it down with a faint shudder. Zero tried his tea, and winced slightly… he could taste the goat's milk in it. But he drank it anyway.

Soon, they were heading back to the lookout post. They were all happy, but Leviathan was especially so… Gate had been true to his word and had provided them with the plans for the class B generators. And Leviathan had gotten something else she wanted, and it was more than just sex… Zero was really interested in her, she was sure of it.

Of course, that left open the question of how Ciel would react to that. Leviathan wondered if a threesome might actually be possible. She was sure Zero was fond of Ciel too… and while she would never give up Zero willingly, it would be good not to step on Ciel's toes… On the other hand, she would rather break Ciel's toes than give up Zero.

Fortunately, they didn't have to address the question immediately. When they arrived at the lookout post, they found that Ciel and Ema had made themselves useful cleaning it up, to the bemusement of the normal inhabitants.

"It must be a female thing," Fortran theorized. "This dreadful intolerance for dirt. Personally, I rather like dirt."

"We could tell," Ciel replied dryly, pulling on her backpack. Ema chuckled softly. She was no neat freak, but she'd gone along with Ciel, mostly because the house really had been intolerably messy. "Try not to get it dirty again too quickly."

"Well, we'll give it a shot," Cobot said with a grin, then waved. "Good luck on your trip!"

"Good luck!"

* * *

"Zero, what is going on with you and Leviathan?" Ciel demanded quietly, as the boat slowly floated back down the river. There wasn't much privacy on the boat, so all the lovers were doing was holding hands. But that was more than enough to tingle Ciel's mental radar. She was sure SOMETHING had happened between them when she had been forced to stay behind, and didn't like it a bit. Zero blushed, looking over the rail and into the water. He was expecting Ciel to be upset… Leviathan was an enemy, after all. Pretty vicious in battle, too.

"Ciel… in Larkspur, we both tried their sacred smoke stick," Zero was very embarrassed, admitting that. "And then we became… intimate. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take up with an enemy of the rebellion. It just happened." Ciel stiffened, then sniffed, and Zero looked at her, surprised. "…Ciel? Why are you so upset?" He was expecting her to be a bit upset, but this seemed excessive.

"You… you are so STUPID!" Ciel sobbed, before whirling around and ducking back into the ship. Zero was left staring after her.

"She's right, you really are stupid." Zero turned to look at Axl, who was leaning against the deckhouse and grinning at him. "I can hardly believe you're Zero. When I knew you waaaay back when, you were never this clueless about girls."

"You knew me a long time ago, didn't you?" Zero demanded. Axl smiled, and nodded. "Tell me about it! I can't remember anything. Please." The greatest desire Zero had was to get his memory back. Axl tilted his head to one size, thinking about it.

"Well, I liked your old armor a LOT better. I think all these new styles are sort of nauseating on guys. Looks too much like bikini briefs." Zero flushed, embarrassed, but gave Axl a glare as the other Reploid grinned at him.

"That's not what I meant. What happened? How did I know you? Tell me!" Axl sobered at that demand, and slowly shook his head.

"Zero… what good would that do?" He said gently. "If I told you about our adventures together, our times with X, the time we gave Spider a wedgie or when we spiked Alia's punch… would that really make you happy? When you can't remember anything I'm talking about? Would it really?" Zero and Axl's eyes met, and Axl held his gaze until Zero turned away to look into the water again.

"It's not fair," he whispered softly. "I want to remember." But Axl was right. If he told Zero about the past, and Zero still couldn't remember, what good would it do? It would only make him feel worse.

"Life's not fair, Z," Axl said, but there was compassion in his voice. "You just have to make new memories for yourself, with the people that matter. The old ones had as much pain as joy in them, anyway. Take my word for it. Sometimes, I almost wish I could forget." There was a long silence, as Zero looked into the water and Axl watched him. Zero finally sighed, and looked up.

"You were saying something about Ciel?" He said, changing the subject. Axl grinned again.

"Oh yeah! You DO realize she would probably just LOVE to roll in your hair?" he teased Zero, as Zero turned to stare at him. "Along with the rest of you, naked on her bed?"

"WHAT are you talking about?" Zero demanded, then blinked as he suddenly realized… "You can't be serious. She can't feel that way about me." Although… now that he thought about it, Ciel WAS rather affectionate. In fact, sometimes almost flirtatious. But surely it was just friendly! Axl rolled his eyes.

"See what I meant about being dense? Believe me, your old self would be trying to get them both in his bed at the same time about now." Axl smiled nostalgically. "I still remember how you helped me lose my virginity." That made Zero stare at him again.

"We DIDN'T!" Zero exclaimed, a bit higher pitch than normal. Axl took one look at the expression on his face, and broke out laughing.

"Gods, no, of course not!" He managed to gasp out. "Oh, the expression on your face! No, you introduced me to… ah, nevermind. But it was a really weird night. Don't even MENTION cherries to me." That only confused Zero further. "Or bail fees. Or… ah! Nevermind. The story is WAY too tangled and I can't even remember all of it. You got me so DRUNK. You were BAD back then." Axl took pity on Zero as he began to look horrified. "Just think about it, okay? And I bet Leviathan already knows how Ciel feels, so maybe you should discuss it with her. She might not like it, but she'll probably be willing to talk about it."

"Maybe." Zero sighed. He really didn't want to have to deal with all this personal stuff, pleasant as it could be. He did love Ciel, but he'd always thought of her as a friend… and Leviathan as an enemy, for that matter.

It was all getting very confusing. He wasn't sure how to deal with it at all… and surely he could put it off for a while. Nothing was going to happen soon, on this cramped boat.

The trip down the river was fairly uneventful, except for a certain coldness between Ciel and Leviathan. And also some distance between Ciel and Zero. But Zero was still doing his best imitation of a turtle, hoping if he pulled back far enough in his shell he would be safe. It wasn't making for good relations.

But when they reached Hell's Mouth, the situation waiting for them managed to take their minds off that minor issue. Well, for a short time.

"WHERE are my soldiers?" Ciel demanded of the ship's captain. He shrugged expansively.

"In jail, Lady Ciel. Along with five members of my crew," he added sourly. "And actually, three of your soldiers managed to escape. They're just hiding below deck."

"Get them out here! Now!" Zero loped over easily to help her out with that. Soon, the bedraggled soldiers had been rounded up and presented to Ciel for inspection. A few of them looked a little scorched around the edges, and one had lost her eyebrows. Unfortunately for Reploids, hair did not grow back. It had to be fixed. "Now what happened?" There was a long silence, before a male soldier cleared his throat.

"Did you know alcohol burns?" He said brightly. "And, if you use a flamethrower in a bar it can explode?"

"Actually, regular alcohol wouldn't do that," Copy X said with professional assurance. "They probably had some weird chemicals there too, for the Reploids that can ingest them. There are some really strange cocktails that'll make your hair spark."

"Thank you, X, for that useless information," Ciel snarled at him, furious, then turned back to the soldiers. "Which one of you idiots was using a flamethrower in a bar? I didn't even know you had flamethrowers!"

"We don't!" The girl immediately protested. "There was a huge fight over a… a… uh, female, at least I THINK she was female, and it was the other guy who had the flamethrower! Well, one of the other guys, there was a whole bunch of them."

"A fight over a whore," X interpreted. "And probably with one of the street gangs. They have some serious weaponry although they're usually not that dumb-"

"Can you PLEASE leave this to me?" Ciel hissed at him, and X shrugged, spreading his hands. Then she fixed the captain with a sharp look. "Why haven't you bailed them out of jail yet?"

"Yes, I was just about to ask," Leviathan cut in. The captain was her responsibility. The captain grimaced, then shrugged again.

"I wasn't certain we would have enough money for the rest of the stay if I did. And besides, cooling their heels in jail is doing them no harm. Although I hear prisoners who can't pay their fines get sold as slaves." That surprised everyone, except the native trio.

"Oh yes," Axl said with a grim smile. "Slavery is alive and well around here. Not so very common, but a lot of Reploids have served five or ten years in the mines over things like this." That silenced everyone for a moment.

"This place is so barbaric," Leviathan muttered, then shook her head. "How much is the bail going to be?" The captain told her, and her eyes about bugged out. "You have GOT to be kidding me!"

"Nope. That's why when I smash up a place, I make sure I'm never caught," X said with an amused grin. "They're basically charging you guys for the price of the tavern, then a bit more for their trouble."

"But what about the idiot with the flamethrower?" Ciel protested, and one of her soldiers piped up.

"Um, he's dead. The tavern owner and all his family went after him with vibro knives and cut him to pieces. Err, and two of the ships crew. It was sort of a hard part of town." Leviathan rubbed her head, feeling a migraine coming on. "And we think maybe Jancrie's dead too. He got hit on a head with a frying pan so hard, the pan sort of molded itself to his helmet."

"Please, just give us more bad news." Leviathan said wearily. "Who do we talk to about getting this sorted out?"

"I'll take care of it," Axl volunteered. "I had to post bail for X, once. If you give me all the profits you made on the emeralds and sapphires, I should be able to sort it out." Leviathan hesitated, then handed over the pouch with a sigh. It hurt to loose all that gold, but it would hurt worse if she came back and Harpuia found out she'd let five of her crew be sold into slavery. "Ciel, your share too. You can split whatever's left over." Ciel winced, but handed over the share Zero had made from the fiasco with Raphael. "X, Ema, while I'm doing this can you secure a cargo?"

"Sure thing," X said cheerfully, making Leviathan blink.

"A cargo?" She said warily. X grinned at her as Axl vaulted off the boat to go secure their friend's liberty.

"But of course! You're not paying us enough for our exclusive attentions. Killing pirates and looting the bodies is fun, but it's only a sideline. We buy items and trade them, or carry cargoes for other people." X looked over the Wandering Gypsy thoughtfully. "If you have enough room, maybe I could arrange a cargo for you too." Leviathan considered that, then shook her head.

"We still have almost all the spices on board. Any more weight, and we'll sink." X nodded.

"Well, spices fetch good prices everywhere. You can sell them off at our next stop, and get something new."

"I see," Leviathan murmured. She had trouble imagining Copy X as a legitimate merchant, but it was obvious he doubled as one. That probably explained how he was so rich, if he was good at anticipating what cargoes would make a lot of money in what ports. Also, he wouldn't have to worry much about being overcome by pirates. That probably made quite a difference, in this place. "Well, good luck on that."

"Thanks!" X and Ema set off, as Zero, Ciel and Leviathan exchanged glances.

"This place is maddeningly barbaric," Ciel finally said with a sigh. "…Why do I like it?" No one could answer.


	9. Chapter 9

A few days later, all the fines were paid, the surviving Rebellion soldiers and sailors were returned to the _Wandering Gypsy_, and X and Ema had secured a cargo of fine incense. They had bought it themselves, since it was manufactured in Hell's Mouth and always fetched respectable prices at their next stop, Tartoga Bay.

"You see, Tartoga bay is very religious, mostly Hinduism. But they have Christian churches, too. Either way, incense is important to them and they never have enough of it." Axl explained as he supervised the Mets. With the leisure time at the harbor, they were industriously checking over the ship and patching a few places. Zero frowned, glancing over at the _Wandering Gypsy_. Leviathan had returned to her own ship, to supervise and protect them in case of disaster. But Ciel had insisted they stay on the _Bad Penny_ and bring her equipment to the other ship, which was far more lightly loaded. The whole thing was eminently logical and reasonable, but it had the side effect of separating Zero and Leviathan. Leviathan hadn't protested, since the plan was that if pirates appeared, the _Wandering Gypsy_ would add sail and make for cover while the _Bad Penny_ dealt with the problem. The _Bad Penny_ was a wonderful ship, but when it came to speed it plodded. Any pirate ship would naturally go for the slower, easier target, so it made sense to put most of the firepower on the _Bad Penny_. Still…

"If that's so, why did they kick out Gate?" Zero asked absently, watching some of the dock workers loading Ciel's equipment for them. A few links of silver, each, had cheerfully bought their services for a few hours. X was also helping out, and they were almost done. Zero might have felt badly about not helping out, but he and Axl were acting as lookouts. Ema was worried that someone might decide to take revenge for what had happened last time.

"Probably because he's a pretty charismatic leader," Axl replied, scanning the docks. "Tartoga Bay is afflicted with a caste system, but Gate's old, older than I am, and we both come from a time when caste systems were considered the Devil's work. The Tyrant probably wouldn't have cared if he'd stayed within his own caste, but Gate had a genius for attracting people from all the Reploid castes and getting them to mix. That's anathema, for Tartoga Bay. The only thing that could have been worse would have been if he'd gotten some humans. Reploids and humans don't socialize at ALL, there." Zero blinked at that verbal word portrait of the place they would be going.

"Have they partitioned half the city for Reploids, and half for humans?" He meant that as a joke, but Axl smiled grimly.

"Almost. If you live in the Reploid quarter, and your caste duties don't call for any mixing, you can live for years without even seeing a human. And vice-versa." Axl suddenly spotted someone in the crowd, and hissed. "Oh hell."

"What is it?" Zero tried to follow Axl's gaze, and spotted a dark skinned Reploid in bright orange armor, glaring virulently at Copy X. X hadn't noticed yet, but the Reploid was coming closer so he undoubtedly would soon.

"Raphael's brother, Lorentino. Damn." Axl pulled out his guns. "I was hoping he'd be smart and not show up. M-3, activate program E-2." One of the Mets beeped acknowledgement, and ran over to the controls. Zero wasn't entirely certain how it would activate the defenses without hands, but then its helmet popped off and a little tendril unfolded, quickly tapping the keys. Zero heard the soft whirr of the generator spooling up, as Axl shouted to X and the dockworkers to stop loading. They wouldn't be able to get through the force field. X immediately turned to meet the threat, and Axl and Zero could hear the shouted words. Most of them were unprintable… and ended in… "Dear lord, that idiot is challenging X to a duel?" Axl exclaimed. "X'll make mincemeat out of him!" Zero could only agree, looking the two Reploids over. Lorentino looked like a combat model, but not on par with the Guardians and certainly not up to Copy X's standards.

Copy X accepted cheerfully, and a crowd started to form, interested in seeing some blood. Leviathan was in that crowd, although not because of bloodlust… she had missed the beginning of the trouble and wanted to see what was going on.

"Can we get off the ship?" Zero asked Axl, who hesitated, then nodded. Soon, they were on the dock, and Axl pushed his way roughly through the crowd, ignoring any protests. The two Reploids were already circling each other, and X was using a light purple beam saber instead of his cannon. It was pretty obvious why… neither of them could fire a gun without possibly taking out the crowd or a ship. "He knows how to use a saber, right?" Zero hadn't seen Copy X use one before this. But his question was answered a moment later, as both of them moved, their sabers clashing with a violent sound.

"Oh, of course. Sabers are the weapon of choice for duels, what with spectators, and X has been in dozens of duels," Axl answered absently, watching the progress of the fight. "Mostly outraged fathers- X! DOWN!" He suddenly screamed, his voice cutting over the cheers of the audience. Copy X reacted instantly, without question, and fell down just as a crossbow bolt whizzed by where he had been standing. There was a scream as it hit someone in the crowd.

The crowd roared in disapproval at this cowardly, cheating tactic, and there was a flurry of activity as they turned against the man who had fired the bolt. He went down with a scream, and X surged to his feet, his eyes blazing with fury. The rest happened so quickly it was hard to follow. X rushed at his opponent, they exchanged a flurry of blows… and X viciously kicked him in the crotch, then beheaded him. Blood splattered everywhere, spraying over the crowd. The head also disappeared into the crowd, to a few horrified shouts and scattered cheers. Ordinarily, that low a blow wouldn't be applauded, but right after an attempt to cheat anything was acceptable.

Axl swore, kicking his way through the crowd as he tried to reach the place the crossbow bolt had hit. People were already backing away from a young Reploid girl, who was lying on the ground and whimpering, her hands around the bolt, which was lodged deeply in her shoulder. She was clearly a civilian model, wearing peach colored armor and cat-like in appearance, but still humanoid. Axl kneeled down beside her, frowning. Her position was slightly unnatural. It was like she had stumbled, collapsed, and couldn't move to make herself even minimally more comfortable. Zero looked around for Ciel, and spotted her trying to force her way through the crowd, but not having much luck. But the onlookers were already dissipating… Zero managed to reach her, then get her to the girl's side.

"Honey, can you move?" Ciel asked the girl softly, who managed to shake her head.

"N-no… it burns…" She moaned, a hand plucking at the bolt feebly. Axl gripped the bolt, then jerked it out with one sharp yank. "Oh!" The girl shivered as Ciel went to work on the wound, and scowled as she scraped away a greenish residue.

"What is this?" She demanded, holding up a smeared finger. Axl examined it closely, then the bolt, before passing them to Ema. She knew poisons fairly well, unlike the rest of them.

"I think it may be Jumli juice, mixed with a catalyzer." She said, then carefully tasted a very tiny bit of it. She grimaced in pain, and spat. "Yes, that's what it is. Don't worry about it… it's just a mild paralytic. A few hours off her feet and it will be out of her system." The girl looked extremely relieved to hear that. "More than enough to let that bastard kill X if it had hit him, though."

"Cretin," X snarled, eyeing the headless body. He'd finished looting it, and come over to hear the last of her words. "I killed him too quickly." Ciel ignored him, rapidly working on the young girl. Then she looked up at the Rebellion Soldiers that had joined them.

"Could someone get my tools?" She needed more things to fix this properly. A few of the soldiers immediately scampered off to fetch them.

"Thank you," the girl said, pathetically grateful. "Thank you so much." Ciel waved it away, but Axl knew why she was so grateful… injuries to Reploids were expensive to fix. If this girl was low in station, which she appeared to be, without their help she would probably have to get the wound patched and endure the pain as her nanites attempted to slowly fix it. They might never succeed, which would leave her with chronic pain and a stiff arm. Something occurred to Axl, and he grinned.

"You know, Ciel, if you guys need to make some money, you could hire yourself out as a Reploid doc when we get to Tartoga Bay," he said conversationally. "There's never enough skilled repair techs around." Ciel looked up at him, startled.

"Really? I hadn't thought of that." It was an appealing thought, though. The Rebellion had nothing to pay, nothing to trade for Zero's generator. Gate had been very nice, giving them the B class generator for free, but it still made Ciel uneasy. They had lost almost all the earlier profits bailing out their soldiers. Ciel returned her attention to the young girl as she talked. "How much does that pay?"

"Quite well, actually." Axl grimaced. "Maybe a little too well. Most people can't afford it." That made all the Rebellion soldiers look at him, startled. Neo Arcadia was short of energy, but not short of basic parts or the skilled hands to put them in. Axl shrugged, a little uncomfortably. "There are ways around that, though."

"Like what?" Leviathan questioned him. Axl hesitated, then answered.

"Well, most combat Reploids insist their contracts cover repairs. And a lot of employers will make that a perk, if they can afford it… the guys loading our ship have that in their contract with the harbormaster." They had gone through the harbormaster to hire the dockhands, an arrangement that pleased everyone. "And if a Reploid is badly injured, they can basically barter away their freedom for repairs. Indentured servitude, it's called… it's a little like slavery, but it usually doesn't last as long as debt slavery. Just a year or two."

"Barbaric," Leviathan muttered, and Axl shot her a sharp look, before looking down at the girl.

"Oh? Like retiring Reploids so they won't be a strain on the power grid?" He asked politely, not glancing at Leviathan. "Myself, I would call that barbaric."

"They're Mavericks!" Leviathan hissed at him, her eyes narrowing. Axl slowly turned to look at her, his expression cold.

"You don't even know the meaning of the word. Reploids in Neo Arcadia go into rebellion because of your rules, because of hate, anger, envy, greed, or the simple desire for freedom. In my time, Mavericks were Reploid who went mad on the street and decimated population centres, killing hundreds of thousands of people. And you never knew who would be next. Your best friend one day might try to blow out your brains the next, and you knew, you knew it could be you someday, turning on your own friends. So don't talk to me about Mavericks, Fairy Leviathan. I haven't the patience." Axl stalked away, his back straight. They watched him go, stunned. X blinked.

"Oh… I think you hit quite a nerve." No one had expected the normally cheerful Axl to react that strongly to anything. It was really quite a shock.

* * *

A week later…

"Hmm, a nice, uneventful trip and this at the end of it." X looked over the dock with a professional eye. "Why do I think we're about to get a kick to the crotch?"

"I don't know," Ciel said, mystified. "Why?" Axl and Ema exchanged a concerned glance, as X answered with a grin.

"Well, to start with, there's a certain dearth of shipping. I'll admit Tartoga Bay isn't as busy as Hell's Mouth… they can be total pissants to traders… but still, there ought to be more than this. Then there's the way the dockworkers are walking around. Sort of like they expect someone to shoot them in the head at any minute. I smell civil unrest in the air."

"Um," Ciel and Zero both looked over the city, and could only agree with Copy X's assessment. In most ways, Tartoga Bay was far more pleasant than Hell's Mouth. The sewage system was obviously more advanced, the avenues were more spacious and the buildings were made out of pretty red bricks. Also, the activity wasn't as hectic, which was pleasant in a way. Sometimes, the constant sound and bustle of Hell's Mouth could get wearing. Tartoga Bay was also quite a bit larger than Hell's Mouth, and seemed to be more technologically advanced. Even from the docks, Zero could see a few serious industrial factories in the distance.

But X was right. The lack of activity wasn't really restful, when you paid attention to the posture of the few people out and about. Human or Reploid, it didn't really matter… they were afraid. Zero tilted his head as he saw how accurate Axl's earlier description had been, as well. Humans and Reploids all wore caste marks on their faces, on the forehead or cheeks, and they always examined another persons' marks before speaking to them. Several times, he saw people examine the marks then simply walk away. And Reploids and humans rarely spoke to each other at all.

"Whatever," Copy X said with a shrug. "We don't know what's going on, and we won't find out up here. Can you call Levi over and anyone else who'll be going into the city? We need to give you a crash course on the castes and put a few markings on you."

"Won't they know that they're not real markings?" Ciel said, taken aback. The humans' markings were tattoos, while the Reploid ones were inlaid into their skin. The best they could do was makeup, which wouldn't look at all the same. Ema nodded.

"Of course they'll know. But that's fine, they just appreciate the effort. It makes them feel so much better, being able to conveniently pigeon-hole us in their own minds." She said with a cheerful smile. "It's a bit of an ice breaker, actually, as long as you don't do something stupid like putting Amaru marks on yourself. That's the ruling caste," she added when they looked confused. "We'll be sticking with the Ratha, Marsing and Yavana castes." Zero decided not to ask, and jumped onto the dock to go fetch Leviathan and some of the Rebellion soldiers. They would all need to hear the explanation.

Soon enough, they were all in the _Bad Penny's_ hold. Ema had set the lights as high as possible, and was already applying some purple marks to Axl's face. They looked like three wavy lines on each cheek. She glanced up as they came in, and smiled, giving them a running commentary. "This is the Ratha mark. It's for low level warriors, the sort who do bodyguarding and whatnot. Not too accurate, but I'm going to be wearing the Yavana caste mark, and that's for middling level merchants. About the lowest caste that can employ Ratha's." She finished Axl's marks, then motioned to Ciel to sit down. She paused a moment, thinking, then pulled out a pot of black makeup. "I think I'll give you the Tamarli mark. That's for skilled technical workers. If you want to repair Reploids here, you'll need it. And it's one of the few human castes that routinely associates with Reploids."

"What marks are you going to give me and Leviathan?" Zero asked, curious. Ema glanced up at him with a frown.

"Well, technically, you should be Amartasu caste. But then, so should X and Axl. I think I should just give you Ratha marks, for now at least… we don't need people to think we're getting arrogant, or worse, report us." She grimaced. "Especially with people acting so odd." Soon, all the marks were applied. Most of the Rebellion soldiers got Marsing marks, which was a simple green circle on the forehead and denoted basic servants. X's mark was similar to Ema's, but with a slightly different design that made it the comparable Reploid caste. That would allow him to conduct business with Reploid merchants, while Ema handled the human ones.

Soon, Ema, Axl, Zero and three of the Rebellion soldiers were heading out to sell the incense and secure a new cargo. X was going out with Leviathan, Ciel and two more soldiers, to try and drum up business for her. And they all were going to ask around about buying an A class generator, under the pretext that they had an injured Reploid who needed one. That was very close to true, and Ciel's marks would support the story.

Ema led them to a large shop that seemed to specialize in perfumes, silks and a great deal of incense… but most of the bins were almost empty. A wizened old man was manning the counter as they came in, and he brightened as he saw them.

"Ema! It has been too long!" He climbed off his stool, wincing faintly. "I hope you've brought some incense again? The festival of Eternal Lights will be soon."

"Indeed we have," Ema said brightly. "And from the condition of your bins, I expect some good prices for it!" She gestured at the half-empty containers, then lowered her voice. "And I was wondering if you could tell me why they're so empty?" The little man's face turned grim, and he waved to a young girl.

"Take my place, Sharri. We should talk in the back." Once they were out of sight of the customers, he was all business. "What do you want to know?"

It came out that Tartoga Bay had been the victim of a recent military coup. That was nothing unusual, Tyrants came and went quite regularly. The fact that the instigator and current Tyrant was a Reploid was a little unusual, but also not unknown. The highest Reploid caste was eligible for the position.

What was very unusual was how brutally he was suppressing any dissent. The main threats to Tartoga Bay came from outside its own borders, and usually Tyrants were indifferent to protests by the common man. Unless the concerns were truly pressing, like food riots, any trouble would blow over fairly quickly. But the current Tyrant thought otherwise, and he'd dispersed a crowd who had marched in support of the previous Tyrant, who had been in jail at the time, by liquidating it.

"Butterfly rounds?" Axl said, shocked, as he heard the news. "In a crowd of humans? That's madness!" The little man nodded grimly, and Ema was looking pale.

"What are butterfly rounds?" Zero asked uneasily, with the feeling that he'd really rather not know. Ema answered, her expression composed.

"They're sort of like fragmentation grenades, if you know what those are?" At Zero's headshake, she frowned and tried to explain further. "Little explosives that propel shrapnel into the crowd. Butterfly rounds use special ceramic pieces that are thin as needles but hard as titanium."

"They were invented to discourage Reploid riots," Axl took over the explanation. "Way, way back during that time you can't remember, Z. Non-Maverick riots sometimes happened, and nothing could take the starch out of a crowd of Reploids as fast as a few canisters of butterfly round. I got on the wrong end of that, once… friendly fire isn't… and believe me, getting inch long spikes imbedded past your armor all over your body isn't fun at all. Not fatal, but sure not fun." Zero imagined the weapon he was describing, and winced. "And it didn't even work as well on me as it would have on civilian Reploids. That was a long time ago, but the canister force has improved to match armor improvements."

"You can imagine," Ema said grimly. "What that would do to unprotected human flesh. They must have used hoses to clean that square, when they were finished." Everyone blanched at that image, but Axl nodded.

"I saw Mavericks use those rounds once, on a crowd of fleeing humans and civilian Reploids," he said, his tone bleak. "It was just… a haze of blood. Everything was mush."

"And to use that in the middle of the city!" Ema chewed her thumbnail, and looked back at the shopkeeper. "What happened to the previous Tyrant?"

"Executed, in the same square." The shopkeeper said with a tinge of regret to his tone. The previous Tyrant had been no saint, to put it mildly. He'd been a hard man, fully capable of issuing orders for torture and death, and had made some significant mistakes with his handling of the military Reploids. But the current situation was making him look like a saint. "Before it was cleaned. Beheaded, I think. No one went to see." Everyone shuddered. There was a strange kind of humor, irony, something in executing the Tyrant among the remains of the people who had been protesting for him. But it was the humor of a madman.

"Is he crazy?" Axl said softly, and the shopkeeper clapped his hands with a sigh.

"We think maybe so. It is a hard time… and he is certainly paranoid. I only talk to you because I know you will not tell anyone… but you be careful. He is very suspicious of everyone, which is why there are so few ships right now. He ordered several destroyed and the crews taken as spies."

"Will Leviathan and Ciel be alright?" Zero asked, suddenly worried. This situation was sounding more and more volatile by the minute. Ema tried to give him a cheerful smile, but it fell a little flat.

"I'm sure they will be! X knows what he's doing," Ema said, but mentally added 'I hope.' Normally, they would probably have taken one look at the dock and kept sailing, or stopped only long enough to sell the supplies and scoot. But Ciel's desire for business was a lot more unusual than selling incense, and questions about A class generators would be more so.

She could only hope that no one would take it the wrong way.


	10. Chapter 10

Copy X delicately scratched his face, being careful not to mar the lines of his makeup. He was in his full angel armor and attracting some odd looks, but he didn't much care… he wanted to be ready in case of trouble, and his angel armor was stronger. The only thing better was his Seraphim form. They were in the Reploid part of town, and Ciel was attracting a few strange looks, but not for too long. The few Reploids who cared to spare the time examined the black marks Ema had painted on her face, and accepted her presence. Ciel hardly noticed, too busy examining the strange Reploids walking quietly on the streets.

If anything, Tartoga Bay had even more Reploids than Hell's Mouth. Leviathan was amazed by the size of the Reploid quarter… it really was almost half the city. Although it was a little annoying, the way the city was strictly sectioned. Each caste's living quarters were separated, and industrial and merchant areas were also very strictly defined. That made it easy for them to find the merchants they wanted, but prevented them from seeing more of the city… Copy X wasn't interested in sight seeing, and led them directly to the market district.

The warehouse Copy X led them to was rather shabby, in a cosmetic way. The paint was peeling and the stonework was grubby, but there were signs of solid workmanship and good repairs… all that it needed to be really attractive was some cleaning. X slammed the door open, making several people look up from their work in surprise.

Ciel blinked as she saw the interior of the building. This was a Reploid repair workshop. There were perhaps a dozen technicians with the same marks she was wearing, working on a wide variety of patients. A small female Reploid in dark blue and silver walked up to them, frowning.

"Who are you lot?" She demanded, raking them over with dark blue eyes. Ciel examined her design carefully, rather impressed. She was a tiny thing, barely reaching Ciel's shoulder, but compact. She looked very agile and dexterous. Her hair was thick black, held up with silver disks, and her features would have been beautiful if they hadn't been so hard. She paused on Ciel's markings, and frowned.

"I'm X," X introduced himself with a charming smile that cut absolutely no ice. "This is Ciel, and this is Leviathan. Ciel is looking for some work? And we were wondering if we could acquire some parts?"

"Hrmph." She looked them over again, then sighed. "I'm Silver Tail. Follow me." She turned around, revealing the reason for her name… a thickly furred, silver wolf's tail. X reached out towards it… until Leviathan smacked him with her spear. She was sure Silver Tail wouldn't be amused with tail stroking. Or worse yet, tail pulling. The office she led them into was large and mostly empty. A large chart was pinned to one wall, with days, times and names written on it. A desk sat in the middle of the room, with a battered chair. There was also a very old shield hanging up on one side of the room, looking battered but serviceable. There were two chairs in front of the desk, and a few more under the shield, obviously meant for visitors. She sat down behind the desk, and impatiently motioned them into seats. "How long are you going to be here and what kind of hours do you want?"

"Just the next two days, probably." X answered, then glanced at Ciel. "I don't know about hours…"

"Any hours are fine," Ciel said brightly. "I'm used to pulling all nighters." And if it would get them money, she was willing to do it again… she would have plenty of time to recover on the ship. Silver Tail lifted her eyebrows.

"Our maximum is twelve hours a day. Human or Reploid, it doesn't matter, people start making mistakes past that." Silver Tail drummed her fingers against the table. "I'm sure I can find some stuff for you. It's equal share for everybody, every day, minus forty percent for operating expenses and tax." Ciel winced, and glanced at X, who nodded. As such things went, this arrangement was reasonable. "And we take a few charity cases, referred from the Azure Sisterhood. You okay with that?" Ciel frowned, slightly confused, but nodded… she was fine with doing charity work when she would be receiving a piece of the overall profits. "Alright. What are the parts you need, exactly?"

"We need a class A fusion generator," Ciel replied. Silver Tail's eyes narrowed, and her lips tightened. "Very small, no bigger than-" She quickly gave the other woman Zero's parameters.

"Absolutely not." Silver Tail replied, her eyes hard as stone. Ciel blinked, sitting back in surprise at the hard, clipped tone. "Do you have any idea what you're asking for?"

"A… class A fusion generator?" Leviathan said, confused, and glanced at X. But he was just as confused, frowning.

"Military ordinance," Silver Tail corrected them. "Stolen goods, from the Tyrant's army, no less! I'm not touching that." X blinked, startled.

"I got a saber from them before," He said, rather bewildered. Silver Tail only scowled harder.

"That was before, this is now!" She snapped, standing up. "Get out of my office and never mention this again!" They all rose hastily, stunned by her vehemence… and slightly alarmed. Silver Tail seemed almost afraid of something. Then they all started as there was a very large crash from the workroom. Silver Tail swore, and dashed out the door.

"Oh, hell!" X readied his gun, then dashed out after. He wasn't disappointed… several strange Reploids had invaded the facility, and the technicians were cowering in the back. The Reploids were led by a very impressive, brand new combat model in dark grey armor, with gold highlights and gold marks on his cheeks. The caste mark inlaid on his head was a sharp, triangular design in brilliant blue.

"Snofru." Silver Tail hissed, and the leader flashed them a grin. It was nicely calculated to make them uneasy, since his teeth had been designed to be shark-like. "What in hell do you want?"

"Come now, Silver Tail. You know better than that." He said in a compassionate tone. His voice was deep and throbbing, almost furry. It would have been a wonderful, soothing sound under other circumstances.

"You bastard, you bugged my desk!" Silver Tail was so furious, her tail was puffed to twice its normal size. Snofru grinned again.

"Oh, of course my dear. Did you really think I would leave you alone?" There was something dark and poisonous in the gaze he fixed on her. X was unpleasantly certain that they had accidentally become the trigger point in a situation that really had very little to do with them. This stranger obviously had a grudge against Silver Tail. Then his gaze traveled over X and Leviathan. "You're all coming with us."

"And what makes you think you can make us?" X asked pleasantly, his buster rock steady and his red eyes bright. He was sure that between them, he and Leviathan could take this small squad.

"Why, our weapons." Snofru replied just as pleasantly. X barked a laugh, then blinked as one of the soldiers behind him pulled out what looked like some kind of rocket launcher. He frowned as he realized this particular soldier was human, from his caste markings, and-

X's thoughts slithered to a stop as the human turned and fired a single shot into a corner of the room. There was a small explosion and a sound like tearing canvas, and screams from the rest of the room. There were no screams from that particular corner. Three humans had been crouched behind a lab table, but now there was nothing but a finely divided paste on the wall…

"You Maverick bastard," Leviathan whispered, her hands tight on her spear. She started forward… and stopped short as he aimed the rocket launcher towards the middle of the room.

"He's a human, Levi, he's not a Maverick." X said, weirdly conversational… and his calm tone made his next words even more insulting. "He's just a sadistic murderer." To his disgust and borderline nausea, the human smiled at him. There was a light in his eyes that made Copy X think he really had enjoyed it. "If you want to call the others Mavericks, though, that's cool."

"Silly archaic term," Snofru dismissed it with a snort. "Now, lay down your weapons or they all die… including that cute little girl hiding behind you." Ciel blushed, somewhere between angry, embarrassed and afraid. She was hiding behind X, but she didn't appreciate being called a little girl.

X hesitated for a long moment, then slowly drew out his beam saber, tossing it onto the ground.

"X?" Leviathan hissed, and he glanced at her, then spoke quietly.

"Three more of those bastards have launchers, Fairy. We can't get them all before they kill everyone in this room." Copy X tended to be self-centered, but allowing a massacre was totally beyond him. Leviathan hissed softly, trying to figure a way out of it… then throwing her staff onto the floor with angry force.

"You too, Silver Tail." Silver Tail looked even more mutinous, but tossed down several knives and a carefully concealed gun. "The garrote as well, my dear." She snarled at him, but pulled off her belt, a dark blue scarf. Snofru smiled darkly. "Shackle them." Several of his underlings started forward, holding shackles that had obviously been designed with powerful Reploids in mind. Copy X submitted to the indignity, but his glittering red eyes were bright with fury. Leviathan was just as furious… and snap kicked one male in the balls as he attempted to grope her. His scream was pitiful, and several of the others immediately aimed their weapons at her. But Snofru laughed, amused, and waved them down.

"Why are you doing this?" Ciel asked. "We just wanted to buy a generator…" Snofru tilted his head at her, and smiled again, revealing his pointed teeth.

"Military ordinance. I think the Tyrant will want to hear about your activities, eh? You might be spies." Snofru grinned widely. "Or you might not. Perhaps the Tyrant will be merciful." Silver Tail snorted, then spoke up sharply.

"What do you want with me, damn you? I'm not a spy!" She was already shackled, her tail still puffed with anger.

"Why, conspiring with spies." Snofru said, his voice smooth as butter. "I suppose I could reconsider the… severity of the charges, since you rejected their demands. If I'm given a reason to do so." Silver Tail stared at him, then bared her teeth in an expression that was more of a grimace than a smile.

"Why don't we discuss it?" She suggested, speaking as if the words pained her. Leviathan muttered several insults about turncoats and suck ups, but X only shrugged… their actions had triggered this, although he suspected Silver Tail had had a longstanding issue with Snofru. If she was going to get out of this by prostituting herself to him, Copy X wasn't going to judge her. In fact…

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in our services, too?" Copy X suggested almost brightly, and Snofru's smile disappeared.

"I think not. You are going to the Tyrants' palace." X shrugged as best he could, with the bonds in place.

"Can't blame a guy for trying." He had the feeling a night with Snofru would be vastly preferable to whatever might happen at the Tyrants' palace…

* * *

"Ema," Axl shook her awake, and she blinked up at him, rubbing her eyes.

"What time is it?" Her eyes were gummy and her head felt like it was full of wool. Not much light was penetrating the room, through the portholes.

"It's early morning, and X never came back." Axl said softly. That made Ema sit up, her expression alarmed. They had assumed that he would be back late, and had gone to bed… this was unexpected. "Neither did Leviathan and Ciel."

"Shit," Ema said, throwing the blankets away and pulling herself out of bed. Soon, she and Axl were up on deck with Zero, who was pacing nervously. He was blaming himself for not realizing they hadn't come back. Here in harbor, Leviathan would have joined him… but he had gone to sleep, since they had gotten back early, and it hadn't occurred to him…

"Alright," Axl easily took charge. "We're going to have to go looking for them. We should probably take some of the Rebellion soldiers, and get some of the crew of the Wandering Gypsy over onto the Bad Penny, so they can take the shipment." They had secured a massive shipment of glassware, perfume bottles and ornamental vases. The merchants in glassware had been almost frantically grateful to find a ship that was available and had a light enough touch to handle the breakables. Tartoga Bay made wonderful glassware, but most of it was sold in other markets. They would be delivering the glassware to a supply depot in Bombay. Right now, that was a lesser concern, but getting the sailors to take care of it wouldn't be difficult.

"Right. Then what?" Ema asked, and Axl thought about it a moment.

"We'll have to try to retrace their steps." He smiled wryly. "If things have gone as wrong as I think, they won't be hard to find."

"Then let's get started." Zero didn't want to delay a moment longer than they already had. Ciel and Leviathan were both in deadly danger, and he wanted them safe.

Tracing them wasn't as easy as Axl had thought it would be… mostly because no one was willing to admit they had seen them. That reaction was informative, though.

"They must have fallen afoul of the authorities." Axl muttered. "We'll just have to go look for at the Reploid repair shops, until we find one that someone's trashed." He was sure X and Leviathan wouldn't have been taken quietly. And the authorities of Tartoga Bay were not currently noted for moderation.

As it happened, he was right. The three of them stood across the street, in the mouth of an alley, looking at a building that had obviously had the front door and a lot of the front wall kicked in. It was being repaired in a desultory fashion, and a girl was sitting nearby and crying. Zero started to walk over, but Axl caught his arm.

"Don't do that," he said warningly, as Zero gave him an unfriendly look. He was seriously worried about Leviathan and Ciel. "They wouldn't talk to you out in public anyway. We need to get someone in private so we can threaten them until they spill." His eye caught a gleam of dark blue. "Ah, perfect candidate." A small female Reploid was limping down the street, using the wall for support. She would go right past them.

"Why? She isn't even over there. She might know nothing." Zero asked quietly. Axl smiled, and Ema grinned.

"We know her. That's Silver Tail, and she runs that place," Axl said, making a small gesture towards the destroyed repair facility. "Or at least, she did. All of you stay quiet. Ema, you be the good cop." Ema nodded, smiling. She understood Axl's plan.

It was surprisingly easy to seize Silver Tail. Axl was being careful… he knew she customarily carried several knives and a gun… but she only squirmed, hissing.

"Silver Tail, I'm sure you know…" he trailed off, blinking at her. "Holy hell, what happened to you?" Close up, he could see the marks of heavy blows on her synthetic skin. Her left cheekbone was actually deformed from it. She glared up at him, beaten but far from broken.

"I spent the night satisfying Snofru and his entire fucking legion! Just kill me now and put me out of my damned misery." She dropped her chin to her chest, utter exhaustion in the lines of her body. "I hate my life."

"Well, you'll hate it even more if you don't tell us where X, Levi and Ciel are," Axl said threateningly, but that set Silver Tail off on a new tangent.

"X! Don't mention that cretin to me. If I had my guns, I'd shoot you!" She squirmed again, then subsided as Axl's grip on her tightened. "They're at the Tyrant's Palace, probably being tortured to death. Can I go now, before someone sees us together?"

"Tortured to death?" Zero said, stunned, as the Rebellion soldiers looked horrified. They had brought three of them, as backup. "Why?" Silver Tail bared her teeth in a grimace.

"That's what they always do with spies. Have they ever caught any actual spies, or just idiots like X? Who knows. Can I go?" Axl let her go, and she limped away, towards the ruined repair shop. There were several glad cries, as the repair techs spotted her. Axl and Ema exchanged appalled glances.

"Where is the Tyrant's Palace?" Zero asked, his beam saber out and his eyes hard. Axl gave him an alarmed look. He knew what Zero would have done a hundred years ago, and doubted this one was thinking of something different.

"Zero, you can't attack the palace head on!" Zero scowled. "This place makes A class fusion generators and LOTS of Reploids, Z. There must be at least a dozen guarding the Tyrant. And the palace has all kinds of fortifications. We'd need the whole Maverick Hunters to take it on!" Axl suddenly smiled, nostalgically. "Actually, it'd be just like old times."

"Don't go all over historic, Axl," Ema said impatiently. "If we're not attacking head on, what should we do?"

"Hm…" Axl considered that for a moment, then smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile. "Let's go see Vile." Zero stiffened, his hand tightening on his saber. That name was familiar, although he couldn't remember why.

"Vile?" Ema sounded dubious. "He won't help us, Axl. He can hardly stand you, and he detests X."

"Oh yes, he will. Right Zero?" Axl flashed him a grin, and Zero nodded, understanding Axl's plan.

They would make whatever threats were necessary to get their friends back safely.

* * *

"Ow." X squirmed slightly, trying to relieve a bit of the pressure on his back. He and Leviathan had been hung from the walls by their wrists, their feet not touching the floor. It was an uncomfortable position, even for a Reploid. For a human, it would quickly have led to dislocation of the shoulders. Fortunately for Ciel, her captors had taken her human nature into account. She was chained to the wall with a cuff around her throat, but it gave her enough play to sit and even lie down. They weren't worried about her assaulting them, with no weapons or armor.

The little they had seen of the palace, as they'd been dragged to the dungeons, had been quite overdone. The Tyrant's Palace was actually a very old building, and it had accumulated fine furnishings like a dog attracts fleas. Gilding and fine marble had flashed by, priceless tapestries and glassware filled with flowers made of gold, silver and jewels…

The dungeons were a complete contrast to the gilded glory above them. Slightly damp, smelling of mildew, the holding cell they were in had several stains on the wall X suspected were dried blood.

"When are they going to do something with us?" Leviathan complained. They had been chained up and left alone for the night. X gave her a mildly curious look.

"You're eager to start the interrogation?" He couldn't imagine why. It was likely to be ghastly, and Leviathan had surely realized that by now. Leviathan glowered at him, but subsided.

"Zero will save us," Ciel said confidently. X looked dubious, but didn't express his doubts. He knew Zero was very, very good… but so was he, and Copy X could never have broken into the Tyrant's Palace in a head on attack. Subterfuge, on the other hand… Tyrant's usually died by assassination. Axl and Ema both knew that, so maybe they would think of a way.

Everyone looked up as someone entered the dungeon. It was Snofru again, and he was looking particularly pleased about something. He looked them all over, amusement in his eyes. Behind him was one of his soldiers… Leviathan tensed as she recognized him as the man who had fired the butterfly round. He regarded them with cold, empty brown eyes.

"So," Snofru said pleasantly. "How are you enjoying our hospitality?"

"Oh, just hanging out." X replied, and the human behind Snofru snorted, amused at the rather feeble joke. "Although it was better before you came to visit. What do we owe the honor to?"

"Oh, nothing much…" Snofru walked over to Ciel, who cringed away. He seemed pleased with that, and gripped her chin, forcing her head up. "A pity you're human…" X's eyes narrowed, and he lost patience with Snofru's play.

"Is that the only way you can get a woman? Threats?" X said scornfully, and Snofru turned to glare as the human soldier looked amused. "You must have a REALLY small peter." That was all it took to set the volatile Reploid off, and X grunted in pain as Snofru took one smooth step and slammed a fist into his gut. X gasped, then said something in a language Ciel and Leviathan couldn't identify… but their captor obviously could, and his face twisted with rage. The beating continued, X refusing to stop his insults, until the human began to look alarmed, and stepped forward to grip his superior's arm. Snofru turned on him with a snarl, and if the human had faltered at all, would probably have torn his throat out. But the soldier met his eyes evenly, without any sign of fear.

"If you kill him, the Tyrant will have YOUR head." He said quietly, and Snofru growled deep in his throat, jerking away. X slumped in his chains, gasping harshly, a bit of blood trickling from his lips. Snofru looked at him, his eyes burning with rage, then gripped his head, pulling it back until Leviathan and Ciel could hear the metal of Copy X's spine creaking.

"I will love seeing what's going to happen to you." He told X, who stared at him blankly, eyes slightly glazed. Snofru snorted, dropped X's head, then stalked out of the room…


	11. Chapter 11

The house they traveled to was more of a mansion. Low slung and sprawling, it was built of what looked like dark stone and wood, but Zero suspected it was actually some kind of composite. It was at the very edge of the Reploid section of the city, and had a great deal of land around it. The landscaping was spectacular, if a trifle odd, by Neo Arcadian standards. Zero blinked as he saw the beautiful stone pathways, going through the gardens… and the delicate little fruit trees, some in bloom, some already fruiting. And also other food plants, interspersed with the flowers… from where he stood, he could see a very large tomato plant. It was full of little green tomatoes, and bigger red ones.

"The one thing I've always admired about Vile is his gardens," Axl said with some approval. "It's not a waste of space, like so many rich people have." Much of the garden was given over to flowers, but much of it was fruits and vegetables. Axl stalked up to the door, and a guard moved to stop him. He was a generic, fairly low level Reploid with Ratha marks, but his armor had been painted very nicely in dark blue and gold.

"Excuse me. What is your business here?" His tone was polite, but he frowned at Ema. A human of the merchant caste really had no business in the Reploid quarter.

"I'm Axl, from the _Bad Penny_. I'm here to see Vile on a business matter." Axl said firmly. The Reploid hesitated, then opened the door.

"Come." He led them into the lobby of the mansion. The flooring was wood flooring, polished to a bright shine, and the walls were quite plain except for a few tasteful paintings. There was a large reception desk in the lobby, almost like one would expect from a hotel. The Reploid woman working there looked up with a frown. She was tall, with long black hair in tight braids, and her armor perfectly matched the Reploid who had brought them in. It looked like that paint job was a kind of livery. She wore a caste mark Zero had never seen before, a red starburst on her right cheek. Her eyes flicked over them, assessing, and her lips tightened.

"Do you have an appointment?" She said frostily. Axl smiled mirthlessly… they were violating perhaps a dozen of Tartoga Bay's inflexible social conventions with this visit, and he didn't care a bit.

"Not hardly. But I need to see Vile now." Her face congealed, but before she could speak, Axl leaned over her desk. "And if you don't take us to him, I'm going to stand outside and try to shoot up this house. And when the authorities come, I'll tell them everything I know about the little… errands we've run for Vile." There was a long pause. The receptionist didn't actually know what Axl was talking about. On the other hand, even if it was all lies… the current administration was not known for moderation. The receptionist gave Axl a look of loathing, then picked up a headset.

"Master Vile? A person called Axl is here. He demands to see you immediately." A pause. "Yes, he did. Yes, sir." She set the handset back down, and looked at the guard, who was hovering nervously. If Vile had decided to kick them out, he would have been expected to start with enforcing it… and he didn't like the looks of Axl and Zero at all. "Take them up to Vile." With faint relief on his face, the guard took them up out of the room.

The room they were taken too looked like an executive office. The Reploid behind the mahogany desk was dressed in purple armor, with no helmet… his face was quite handsome, with olive skin and one golden eye. His other eye was a brilliant red, and Zero stiffened at the sight of him, tensing sharply. Memories welled up in him, and for the first time, he could really remember…

_He was hurrying through the ruined city. X was ahead of him, he had to reach him in time… the kid was just a rookie, even if he had the potential to be so much more. It could all end here if he didn't get there in time…_

_There! Zero charged his buster as he dashed forward, seeing the robot ride armor and the purple Reploid inside squeezing the life out of X. He released a charged off shot, severing the armor's arm…_

Zero shivered and touched his head. He had finally remembered something, but it evoked feelings of hatred and rage, directed towards this stranger in front of him.

"You hurt X…" Zero said softly, and Axl looked over at him, startled. Vile frowned, unable to tell who Zero really was. Axl quickly gripped Zero's arm.

"Zero, that was a long time ago. Vile was purged of the virus after the last war with Sigma, and he fought with the good side against Weil." Axl explained, and Vile's eyes widened as he heard the name.

"Zero?" He looked the new version up and down, then raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating. I would never have expected this." Then his expression turned cool, as he looked at Axl. "What do you want, Axl? I don't care for your threats."

"Sorry, Vile, but we need help and we need it now." Axl leaned over the desk, his face intense. "X, Ciel and Leviathan… you wouldn't know them, they're from Neo Arcadia… have been taken as spies. We need to get them out. You've been in and out of that palace like a flea on a dog, you must know a way in!"

"I might," Vile said mildly. "But I fail to see why should help you."

"Your help in exchange for your life," Axl said bluntly, and Vile's face went very still. He slowly stood, and Axl tensed but didn't move back as Vile planted his hands on the desk and leaned forward until their faces were almost touching.

"Do not presume to threaten me in my own home, my own office. You have no idea what protections I have here." That sent Zero's eyes darting around the room, as he tried to identify threats. With a sinking feeling, he managed to find several well concealed sensors… and he didn't think they were hooked to anything non-lethal. Axl and Vile continued their staring contest for a long moment… before Vile straightened with a thin, cold smile. "As it happens, I have some personal reasons to wish the current Tyrant ill. If we can think of a good plan, I'll help you… but if not, my help is over. I didn't survive this long by backing losers."

"I seem to recall you dying a lot working for Sigma." Axl said with a small grin, relaxing slightly. Vile snorted and shook his head.

"I meant voluntarily. I had no choice in backing that loser." Vile's expression turned serious. "My knowledge might be slightly out of date. I was banned from the palace by the previous Tyrant, which was probably all that saved my life from this one. But I haven't been welcomed back."

"What happened?" Zero asked. "And what was your personal reason…?" He was really quite curious about that. Vile gestured them towards the chairs in the room.

"Take a seat… this will take a while to explain." When everyone was comfortably seated, Vile sat as well, and folded his hands together as he thought for a moment. "For a very long time, I was in the previous Tyrant's good graces. I'm a very wealthy merchant, and I often procured very exotic toys for his children. A harmless way to gain influence, normally. However, that arrangement ended quite abruptly," Vile smiled humorlessly, and bit off the next words. "When I proposed marriage to a girl of the Amaru caste." Ema frowned, and carefully examined Vile's caste markings.

"Your markings are the Amartasu caste, although you're retired… correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that be an acceptable cross-caste match? Unless she was an only child?" Vile shook his head.

"You are correct, and she was a third child, although the only daughter. She was also the Tyrant's niece." That made Ema and Axl blink. "I thought the relationship was distant enough to be acceptable. He thought otherwise."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ema said sympathetically. "I take it she's… gone?"

"She died when the current Tyrant purged the clans." Vile said plainly. He had no use for euphemisms. "I have no particular grief, but I am offended. When I first heard about the coup, I was glad." That made everyone blink in surprise. "I thought that without her meddling uncle around, we would soon be married. Any normal Tyrant wouldn't have bothered with a mere niece… she should have been disgraced, almost penniless, but not killed."

"This Tyrant is really wacked, isn't he?" Axl said softly, and Vile shrugged.

"Many Tyrants have been this ruthless. But he doesn't seem to know about or care for the tools a Tyrant can use instead of violence. And because he uses violence to generate terror, only violence will serve him. I estimate he'll last a year at the most, even if we don't intervene." Vile's tone turned cynical. "And when he dies, there will be a civil war."

"I really don't care." In Zero's opinion, whatever Tartoga Bay got would be what it deserved. Vile smiled nastily.

"Then let's get started." Axl nodded, and they began to plan…

* * *

"X." Ciel sounded like she was on the verge of crying. "X, please talk to me!"

She'd been trying to keep Copy X awake and alert, afraid he was in danger of going into a coma. In his current condition, with no medical attention, that could be dangerous. But despite her attempts, he had been steadily sinking since the beating. Ciel was deathly afraid some of his internals had been damaged, and he was leaking coolant into his chest cavity. The blood that he was still coughing up supported that diagnosis, and auto-repair systems could only do so much with such terrible injuries.

"Ciel, there's no point. He's unconscious." Leviathan sighed, slumping in her chains. "I don't think he's going to live, unless they give him some attention soon." X was very tough, and so was his angel armor… but there were limits.

"But he did it for me," Ciel said, slowly starting to cry. "He did it to keep that bastard away from me… and I, I thought of him as a failure…" The humiliation she had felt when this first Copy X had left Neo Arcadia had colored all her interactions with him. She'd never dreamed he might sacrifice himself for her, and it made her feel low as a worm. Leviathan was silent for a moment.

"He's a good man," she said softly, looking over at X. His chin was on his chest, his face slack and empty. A thin line of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth, onto his armor. "Even if he tries to seem worse than he is." X took a great deal of pride in his image as a womanizer, pirate killer, wandering merchant and general ne'er-do-well, but Leviathan thought he had far more morals than he let on.

Two Reploids came into the room, and Leviathan and Ciel looked up. They were wearing the caste marks of common soldiers, and seemed to be generic flunkies.

"You're being taken to see the Tyrant," One of them said in a businesslike tone, pulling out a ring of keys and glancing at his friend. "Which one first?" His friend frowned at X's motionless body.

"He's out of it… let's get him first. If he's dead, Shiima will want to know right away." The first guard nodded, and Leviathan watched silently as they undid X's chains. Ciel scowled.

"Don't let him fall to the ground, he's suffered enough." She snarled at them. They both glanced over at her, annoyed… which proved to be a fatal mistake.

X's head suddenly snapped up, his red eyes opening wide as he flashed into Seraphim form in a blinding flash of light. X's hands moved with blinding speed, the giant claw/fingers of his left hand slamming through the neck of the Reploid to his left. His right hand closed on the second, muffling any scream as it crushed his head.

"What… the… hell…?" Leviathan managed to say, staring, as X turned back to his angel armor and grinned at them. Ciel also stared, round eyed and wondering.

"They must have been new. The old Tyrant's jailers would never have relaxed their guard like that." X grabbed the keys off the one who had released him, and started working on Leviathan's shackles. "By the way, that was just so sweet of the two of you. I'm touched. So, does this mean I can have a kiss for good luck before we get started?" X said with a grin.

"No!" Leviathan yelped as Ciel stared, still in shock. "You… you were faking the whole time? You bastard! He didn't hurt you at all, did he?" X's grin faded around the edges, and he shook his head as he undid Ciel's collar. Leviathan rubbed her wrists with a scowl, watching him.

"Yes and no. Yes, I was faking. No, he really hurt me bad." X turned his head away, and spat a wad of viscous coolant onto the floor. "I had to make it look convincing, and that meant getting hurt." He gave Leviathan a thin smile. "I'll do my best, Fairy, but the rest might be up to you."

"Well, if that's the case…" Leviathan phased in her weapon, to X's surprise and appreciation.

"I didn't know you could do that-mrph!" X staggered as Ciel suddenly hugged him, and gave him a kiss. She pulled back a moment later, wincing as she wiped away a bit of coolant from her lips.

"A kiss for good luck," she explained with a blush as they both stared at her. X grinned and laughed, hugging Ciel back.

"Thanks, Ciel. That makes my day. C'mon… let's get out of this pus hole." They didn't have a plan and probably wouldn't survive, but it was better than just waiting for death. At the very least, they would make their captors pay.

* * *

The cobwebs were thick in the secret passage. Zero used his beam saber to clear them away, and raised the glowing green weapon over his head to illuminate the passageway. Vile was right behind him, directing him. He would have been ahead of him, but Zero had insisted on taking point. No one had felt like disagreeing.

They had left the three Rebellion soldiers behind, to help with another part of their plan… a frontal assault by some forces loyal to Vile. It seemed Vile had been taking steps to secure loyalty in some interesting places, using several cut-outs and more paranoia than Axl and Ema would have believed possible. Understandable paranoia… if the Tyrant had heard about his efforts, Vile would have been killed, probably gruesomely.

They reached an end to the passageway, and Zero let Vile push past him, quickly doing something to the stone. According to Vile, these passageways were as old as the Tyrant's palace, and most had been put in place by the very first Tyrant. Vile almost seemed nostalgic as he recalled her, and described her as the most cold-blooded, Machiavellian woman he had ever met. Axl secretly suspected they might have been soul-mates.

For this part of the plan, it was only the three of them. Ema had gone back to the _Bad Penny_ to get it ready for a quick departure. She would only have been a hindrance at this point, and knew it.

The door opened, into a beautifully appointed bedroom. Vile stepped in, eliciting a small surprised sound from someone on the bed… but nothing more. Zero and Axl followed him, glancing around. The room had the strangest bed they had ever seen… it was round, with red silk covers. And unfortunately, had a naked human girl on top of it. She was quite beautiful, with thick black hair almost as long as Zero's and deep brown skin. The caste mark on her forehead was a golden, swirling tattoo. She was sitting up, giving them an incredulous look.

"Amarie said to prepare for something unusual, but isn't three a bit much? Unless some of you are bi?" She said hopefully. Zero blushed, and Axl choked on a laugh. She peered past them, and frowned. "What is that doorway thing?" Vile stepped up to the bed and reached down to touch her hair, making her flinch away slightly, then give him a professional smile.

"We're not here for that, my dear. Co-operate and you won't be hurt, except perhaps your dignity. Axl, the tape." Axl nodded, pulling out a thick roll of duct tape from his backpack. The girl was starting to look rather uneasy.

"That's a little kinky…" Vile shook his head, and started to bind her up. She went along with it, semi-willingly. "Hey, if you tape my legs together I can't-mrph!" Vile put the last piece of tape over her mouth, and Axl gave up his battle against absurdity and started to giggle hysterically.

"Axl, hush. It's not that funny." Vile stepped back as the girl stared at them, horribly confused.

"Yes, it IS." Axl choked out. "She really thought we were here to-"

"We gathered. Come on." Vile led the way out, cautiously looking right and left. They weren't too close to the dungeons, but this was the closest secret entrance they had easy access to.

There was suddenly a loud explosion, and the floor seemed to shake.

"I think our distraction just started. Run!" Now that there was an attack going on, a few more Reploids running through the halls wouldn't attract as much attention as it might otherwise. After all, the enemy was OUTSIDE. Reploids inside would be running to combat stations.

Finally, the burst into the dungeons… and despite a very thorough search, they didn't find Leviathan, X and Ciel. But they did find two suspiciously dead bodies, along with two empty sets of Reploid shackles and a human collar.

"They escaped." Vile said after a quick examination. "Wonderful." Ordinarily, it would have been commendable. Right now, it was very inconvenient for their plans.

"We have to find them." Zero said firmly. Axl looked down at the ground.

"Follow the blood trail?" He suggested brightly, and they both noticed a thin trail of coolant. Someone had been bleeding.

"Good idea." Zero led the way, ready to cut apart anyone who got between him and his friends…


End file.
